Micro, Macro, Interconnected, Views & Relations.
or
Listening and feeling our way through a sensory field.
Two interconnected titles, two views of the same subject matter, with many layers, metaphors and literal understandings.
The personal preoccupation and perhaps worldwide zeitgeist of appreciating being in the moment, foregrounding our own individual and collective sensory perception is important, even vital to re-making connections between people, disciplines, knowledges , experiences and nature. We are more likely to notice, understand and care for things that we have a strong connection to.
This endeavour is vital to be able to re-assess and imaginatively rework such concepts as unlimited growth versus equilibrium, stasis and natural richness of sustainable cyclical growth, diversity and abundance. For me Art has a special value in engaging multiple senses known and unknown- rapid thinking unconscious, felt immersive experiences. For the cause of conservation or sustainable healthy life on earth, no end of facts, statistics and dire warnings have been available for decades. In an earlier presentation about Abstract Animation I wrote about the value of "forgetting and letting go of the need or expectation, let alone the impatient demand, to know anything – let alone everything. And possibly to accept at the same time that, somewhere in the organisation of our complex pattern of molecules and cells, that we might already unconsciously know everything – or everything we need to know at any given instant." In this same presentation I wrote about an intention “to capture the moment between breaths, to create direct emotional expressions without words or texts, to explore the interconnection and vibration (resonances) of all things, thoughts and energy, the beautiful simplicity underlying any perceived complexity and perhaps even some small reclaiming of childhood wonderment, imagination, curiosity energy and fun.” Or some favorite quotes from Matthew Zapruder's book "Why Poetry " “ the increasing pervasiveness of connective technology has made the contemplative, speculative, drifting yet attentive awareness … never more rare and necessary.” as is the need to "Carve out a space for imagination like a nature reserve in our minds."
If Art can help people appreciate the moment, imagine helpful new ways of being and doing, in other words, rekindle deep inter-connection with all life on earth the hope would be this may contribute to creating positive change quicker than the frog that disengages from statistics and facts, lives with distorted echo chamber, tunnel-vision versions of reality and only jumps out of boiling water* when it is almost too late.*(David Suzuki analogy in speeches possibly twenty years ago.)
I hope to make artworks that invite and provide time and context to foreground everyone’s own need and potential for creative, imaginative, thinking and feeling. I feel this relates to relating to nature with greater connection and respect ,even awe and wonder , which in turn can create a mutually beneficial even healing relationship or symbiosis .
For me at least, Artwork cannot help but bring disparate fields of knowledge together not assimilating or usurping them, but creating awareness respect and productive exchange or dialogues between them.
The idea of exploring liminal spaces, such as the space in between feeling and thought, pre-verbal sensory experiences. Expressing, communicating or creating the experience of something that cannot be put into words has been a preoccupation for myself and general zeitgeist of art possibly forever.
Recently I’ve also come to the awareness of the value of stasis as being a crucial unacknowledged, “most in-between state” of all in between states. Stasis is the state in between opposing views, arguments or states of being . Stasis is not actually boring and not “BAU” business as usual, it is a kind of dynamic equilibrium and state actually providing the space to be open to considering all sides of an argument, opposing or conflicting needs and desires. Getting to a productive equilibrium stasis point between pursuits of extraction and conservation, reductive and holistic thinking, is for instance, a very urgent need related to dialogues between perhaps unlimited individual growth and competition and such concepts as “donut economics” , contemporary science and first peoples knowledge of frugal simplicity, deep collaboration and connection with all nature.
I have used stasis as a non-narrative context for time based media. I have through inexperience , laziness and lack of learning, and or intuitive choice and interest, been drawn to making soundscapes or ‘music’ making and experimental films(or "visual music") that do not go 'anywhere'. These films have no big chord progressions or specific linear narrative arcs. This is most often an intention to evoke a productive state of stasis. A state of stasis is open to interpretation, stimulus for anyones own acceptance and awareness. Stasis allows space for creative thinking , reflecting , re-assessing, getting lost and finding new pathways, remembering or imagining different potentials and perspectives.
A fascination for me has also been the chaotic, apparent randomness of natural processes and phenomenon that, as chaos theories explored, actually have their own patterns and can also appear like a form of stasis or equilibrium. An order and dynamic pattern too complex to take in at a quick glance.
Recording the soundscape of the bush land reserve at Dookie and then trying to improvise some simple piano chords and single notes to go with this emphasised this natural chaotic complex overlapping waves of sound and activity as stasis in a dynamic flow. Similarly recording the ‘signal’ from various plants as midi music notes also exhibited this same stochastic happy stasis, busy in a relaxed flow state in a way that every well-being, mindfulness, meditation or whatever class might aim for!
NEXT some hazy notes on "sensory fields" versus the constructed self / other.
Every cell in our body is constantly responding to a constant flow of simultaneous sensory stimuli from the largest to the smallest unnoticed or imperceptible changes in the environment around us. Some scientists and traditional knowledges may both show beliefs and evidence of "intersubstantive", interconnectedness, "social relation" of all living things in this sensory field.
Discoveries of tiny hairs or "cilium' on living cells that respond to vibrations such as sound could be seen as one example of this connectedness. David Haskell in "Sounds wild and broken" writes of this and of a lab experiment that found bacterial cultures grew faster when played amplified sounds of their own activity.
The specialised cells in our minds seek to protect us, curate and create, narratives out of this sensory information as quickly and best it can. Our senses and minds only consciously process a fraction of all this information and some ranges and types of information we cannot sense at all. We don't share for instance, the infra red sensory capabilities of snakes. There is alot of information that any of our five human senses cannot process fast enough to be conscious of. Maybe in a way similar to plants, some of the cells in our bodies just react and work together appropriately as needed. Even the five senses humans may have, are not isolated transactional events and have complex influences on each other. These identified senses do not necessarily account for all the automatic and conscious reactions our body feels in a room of people, crowded street or forest filled with life. The experience of remote meetings and teaching seemed to bring these extra sensory dimensions of communication and interaction to the fore with their absence felt strongly and a keenness for in-person meetings to take place whenever practical.
Technology has been invented to augment our senses, such as microscopes, amplifiers, infra red sensors, and so on. I have known for sometime of various sensors used in innovative and ground breaking interactive media art projects. I now realise just how prevalent all sorts of sensors augmenting our perception, analysis, measuring and responding capabilities of our selves and or our machines are. Forestry, water and agriculture for instance can aim for efficiency and in some cases less environmental waste or pollution through a technological mastery or "precision" achieved with the help of various sensors. My artwork uses the sensory augmentations of cameras and microphones, as well electrode sensors on plants and even point cloud models of camera views using consumer level LIDAR technology on mobile tablet. I'm sure I will continue to be entranced and intrigued by the potential of new sensor augmenting technology but hope I can place all these explorations in contexts of collaboration and connection to all living things as much as possible for me and others in whatever ways we can at any particular moment.
The personal preoccupation and perhaps worldwide zeitgeist of appreciating being in the moment, foregrounding our own individual and collective sensory perception is important, even vital to re-making connections between people, disciplines, knowledges , experiences and nature. We are more likely to notice, understand and care for things that we have a strong connection to.
This endeavour is vital to be able to re-assess and imaginatively rework such concepts as unlimited growth versus equilibrium, stasis and natural richness of sustainable cyclical growth, diversity and abundance. For me Art has a special value in engaging multiple senses known and unknown- rapid thinking unconscious, felt immersive experiences. For the cause of conservation or sustainable healthy life on earth, no end of facts, statistics and dire warnings have been available for decades. In an earlier presentation about Abstract Animation I wrote about the value of "forgetting and letting go of the need or expectation, let alone the impatient demand, to know anything – let alone everything. And possibly to accept at the same time that, somewhere in the organisation of our complex pattern of molecules and cells, that we might already unconsciously know everything – or everything we need to know at any given instant." In this same presentation I wrote about an intention “to capture the moment between breaths, to create direct emotional expressions without words or texts, to explore the interconnection and vibration (resonances) of all things, thoughts and energy, the beautiful simplicity underlying any perceived complexity and perhaps even some small reclaiming of childhood wonderment, imagination, curiosity energy and fun.” Or some favorite quotes from Matthew Zapruder's book "Why Poetry " “ the increasing pervasiveness of connective technology has made the contemplative, speculative, drifting yet attentive awareness … never more rare and necessary.” as is the need to "Carve out a space for imagination like a nature reserve in our minds."
If Art can help people appreciate the moment, imagine helpful new ways of being and doing, in other words, rekindle deep inter-connection with all life on earth the hope would be this may contribute to creating positive change quicker than the frog that disengages from statistics and facts, lives with distorted echo chamber, tunnel-vision versions of reality and only jumps out of boiling water* when it is almost too late.*(David Suzuki analogy in speeches possibly twenty years ago.)
I hope to make artworks that invite and provide time and context to foreground everyone’s own need and potential for creative, imaginative, thinking and feeling. I feel this relates to relating to nature with greater connection and respect ,even awe and wonder , which in turn can create a mutually beneficial even healing relationship or symbiosis .
For me at least, Artwork cannot help but bring disparate fields of knowledge together not assimilating or usurping them, but creating awareness respect and productive exchange or dialogues between them.
The idea of exploring liminal spaces, such as the space in between feeling and thought, pre-verbal sensory experiences. Expressing, communicating or creating the experience of something that cannot be put into words has been a preoccupation for myself and general zeitgeist of art possibly forever.
Recently I’ve also come to the awareness of the value of stasis as being a crucial unacknowledged, “most in-between state” of all in between states. Stasis is the state in between opposing views, arguments or states of being . Stasis is not actually boring and not “BAU” business as usual, it is a kind of dynamic equilibrium and state actually providing the space to be open to considering all sides of an argument, opposing or conflicting needs and desires. Getting to a productive equilibrium stasis point between pursuits of extraction and conservation, reductive and holistic thinking, is for instance, a very urgent need related to dialogues between perhaps unlimited individual growth and competition and such concepts as “donut economics” , contemporary science and first peoples knowledge of frugal simplicity, deep collaboration and connection with all nature.
I have used stasis as a non-narrative context for time based media. I have through inexperience , laziness and lack of learning, and or intuitive choice and interest, been drawn to making soundscapes or ‘music’ making and experimental films(or "visual music") that do not go 'anywhere'. These films have no big chord progressions or specific linear narrative arcs. This is most often an intention to evoke a productive state of stasis. A state of stasis is open to interpretation, stimulus for anyones own acceptance and awareness. Stasis allows space for creative thinking , reflecting , re-assessing, getting lost and finding new pathways, remembering or imagining different potentials and perspectives.
A fascination for me has also been the chaotic, apparent randomness of natural processes and phenomenon that, as chaos theories explored, actually have their own patterns and can also appear like a form of stasis or equilibrium. An order and dynamic pattern too complex to take in at a quick glance.
Recording the soundscape of the bush land reserve at Dookie and then trying to improvise some simple piano chords and single notes to go with this emphasised this natural chaotic complex overlapping waves of sound and activity as stasis in a dynamic flow. Similarly recording the ‘signal’ from various plants as midi music notes also exhibited this same stochastic happy stasis, busy in a relaxed flow state in a way that every well-being, mindfulness, meditation or whatever class might aim for!
NEXT some hazy notes on "sensory fields" versus the constructed self / other.
Every cell in our body is constantly responding to a constant flow of simultaneous sensory stimuli from the largest to the smallest unnoticed or imperceptible changes in the environment around us. Some scientists and traditional knowledges may both show beliefs and evidence of "intersubstantive", interconnectedness, "social relation" of all living things in this sensory field.
Discoveries of tiny hairs or "cilium' on living cells that respond to vibrations such as sound could be seen as one example of this connectedness. David Haskell in "Sounds wild and broken" writes of this and of a lab experiment that found bacterial cultures grew faster when played amplified sounds of their own activity.
The specialised cells in our minds seek to protect us, curate and create, narratives out of this sensory information as quickly and best it can. Our senses and minds only consciously process a fraction of all this information and some ranges and types of information we cannot sense at all. We don't share for instance, the infra red sensory capabilities of snakes. There is alot of information that any of our five human senses cannot process fast enough to be conscious of. Maybe in a way similar to plants, some of the cells in our bodies just react and work together appropriately as needed. Even the five senses humans may have, are not isolated transactional events and have complex influences on each other. These identified senses do not necessarily account for all the automatic and conscious reactions our body feels in a room of people, crowded street or forest filled with life. The experience of remote meetings and teaching seemed to bring these extra sensory dimensions of communication and interaction to the fore with their absence felt strongly and a keenness for in-person meetings to take place whenever practical.
Technology has been invented to augment our senses, such as microscopes, amplifiers, infra red sensors, and so on. I have known for sometime of various sensors used in innovative and ground breaking interactive media art projects. I now realise just how prevalent all sorts of sensors augmenting our perception, analysis, measuring and responding capabilities of our selves and or our machines are. Forestry, water and agriculture for instance can aim for efficiency and in some cases less environmental waste or pollution through a technological mastery or "precision" achieved with the help of various sensors. My artwork uses the sensory augmentations of cameras and microphones, as well electrode sensors on plants and even point cloud models of camera views using consumer level LIDAR technology on mobile tablet. I'm sure I will continue to be entranced and intrigued by the potential of new sensor augmenting technology but hope I can place all these explorations in contexts of collaboration and connection to all living things as much as possible for me and others in whatever ways we can at any particular moment.