Experimenting with semi-fictional forms and assemblages
After putting some of the printed scan images up on the wall in studio, I realised that presenting them as separate pages makes them look too disjointed and sterile, almost a bit like an entomologist's insect collection. As my intention is not to isolate these forms completely but to explore the relationships between ourselves, environment, and the domestic ecologies I have access to, I think I need to be mindful about the connections between each object, or lack thereof. In light of this, and drawing inspiration from some of the artist models I've been looking at this year, I started creating some small hybrid works out of the scans of a pohutukawa tree in my flat's front garden. I've been primarily focusing in on the lichen, bark, and at times small insect colonies the at present in/on it. We're not entirely sure how long the tree has been there (the house was build between 1890-1910, so it could've been planted any time after that). It's very old though.
Initially I tried to piece the tree back together by putting the scans back in their approximate location in relation to it's over shape, but I found this looked too organised - too much like a jigsaw puzzle and indicative of process than observant. For now I've settled on combining three of the more detailed scans (I will need to redo the others) into a hybrid form. I've been referring to it as a chimera - I'm not sure if it's the correct use of the word, but as the organic detail of the tree's surface and the digital presence in the work both come through fairly strongly I thought it had some interesting implications in the context... It also relates well I think to the lichen ecology I've been looking into though doesn't completely apply definition-wise on a biological level, but from a human-looking-in-at-something level, lichen do appear as a single entity rather than a symbiosis. Perhaps there's something there around perception and etimology to be explored...
Duplicate images are rendered in different definition levels, hence any repeats. These are just initial test experiments, and I want to improve the sense of depth and volume in them in future as they're looking a bit dull and collage-y. Am also conscious these are very 'front and centre' images (object is primarily centered, in a standard format, etc.) - not something I'm overly tied to but just something I'm aware of as a convention that's becoming repetitive.
I'm also working on creating a video piece using this idea which would take the viewer through the object in a much more spatially-obvious(?) way where the volume of the creation is more apparent. This coming week I'll try to bring these into studio to test them on a larger scale via projection (though even the studio space is starting to feel too small for my projector) and as AR objects. (I don't think an explorative video would work well on a small screen, but perhaps as a projected installation).
From Google:
noun: chimera; plural noun: chimeras; noun: chimaera; plural noun: chimaeras
1. (in Greek mythology) a fire-breathing female monster with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail. any mythical animal formed from parts of various animals.
2. a thing which is hoped for but is illusory or impossible to achieve.
Similar: illusion, fantasy, delusion, dream, fancy, figment of the imagination, will-o'-the-wisp, phantom, mirage, ignis fatuus
3. BIOLOGY an organism containing a mixture of genetically different tissues, formed by processes such as fusion of early embryos, grafting, or mutation. a DNA molecule with sequences derived from two or more different organisms, formed by laboratory manipulation.
"A chimera is essentially a single organism that's made up of cells from two or more "individuals"—that is, it contains two sets of DNA, with the code to make two separate organisms."
Revisiting past artist models for inspiration - Lauren Moffat and Deborah Mora
In exploring the idea of digital assemblage and semi-constructed (or at least re-envisioned) environments, I've been drawn back to the works of Lauren Moffat and Deborah Mora (blog post on the latter here) I examined earlier in the year. While there's an obvious parallel in terms of the technology, aesthetic and process they both use, I think there's also a relevant parallel in the way they approach the relationship to the content they explore. How they both make connections between fragments of information in order to explore it and the work's construction itself is curious to me. In both works I can see a trace of the organic/natural/non-artificial, but there's enough space left there for viewers to ponder and form their own perspective that goes beyond literal translation or repurposing of imagery. There's a speculative
Right: Lauren Moffat, Compost VIII, 2021, 4K Video
Lauren Moffatt is an Australian artist who works with immersive environments and experimental narrative practices. Her work, often presented in hybrid iterative form, explores the paradoxical subjectivity of connected bodies and the blurred boundaries between digital and organic life. Her Compost series, from which Compost VIII is taken, explores cycles of growth and decay in nature and how different ecosystems are interlinked via human movement and behaviour. These augmented reality works featuring video and virtual photography bring visibility to how processes in the natural world are reflected in our imaginations and the digital environments we inhabit.
For many years Lauren Moffatt has worked with images in space and images with volume. With her Compost series she explores the theme of slowing down and regeneration through video game technologies. The images presented follow numerous pathways, some made accidentally, some thanks to dialogue with machines. By creating a type of digital strangeness using effects that combine the sublime with digital flaws, the artist’s work brings disorder and indeterminacy to the living.*
Deborah Mora's practice explores symbiotic relationships between nature, culture and technology. Her work investigates ideas of memory, preservation, re-wilding and resilience, focusing on how natural processes, artefacts and myths can allow for different experiences of an often mediated world. Her project 0°N, 0°E, a digital video work explores a constructed technological memoryscape of nature. The project is "an invitation to a collective, technologically mediated memory of nature". The landscape of nature is created from mediated images of the natural world - through Google images, maps, online images, videos, scans, and other pieces of digital information. In effect, "the cyber myth of Null Island is used to project how knowledge is generated when the only access to nature is hypermediated modality. Can our natural environments be preserved in a digital format? How does this format contribute to knowledge and experiences?"
Sound and video experiments
After printing some of the bouquet images last week, I attempted to film some of my garden at night - I thought the ambient light from the house and from the moon could create a similar effect as the black digital background in Blender, organically. Unfortunately the footage didn't save properly, so I will need to try again. (Still to the right)
Last week when looking at some of Mat Collishaw's work (below) one evening, I mistook the sounds of the crickets outside my window for video audio. The work I was looking at was a reinterpretation of a Durer study of a meadow, and the experience prompted me to make some quick recordings of the nighttime sounds outside my house. Unfortunately the camera I used picked up too much white noise for it to be effective so I will try again with a proper sound recording device... but that failure in itself made me think about how similarly the crickets in the distance sounded like the static noise I hear on the over-ear headphones I use on a regular basis (probably a sign I should clean them!). From there the idea of crickets - typically something referenced to imply silence or absence of noise, took on a bit more of a curious implication to me... Not sure where that thought is going yet, but I thought it was an interesting parallel. Digitality, expectation, entomology, etymology,...
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