Documentation of Magic Boxes, Final Project

This weekend I left my magic boxes as an installation in their intended location on the Huron River bridge on Broadway in Ann Arbor. I was able to take some photos of people investigating these, and would like to include these in with my other documentation images:

I feel there are worlds of discovery here.

Here is the artist statement:
Magic Boxes: a Journey Installation

Artist: Elise Beckman

The notion of magic is vastly overlooked within the rush of modern day life, yet it exists always beneath the surface in subtle and meaningful ways, and can be tapped into simply by seeing the mundane from a different perspective. This interactive installation seeks to bring the sense of magic to life by creating a small, surprising world within the context of the everyday, specifically, in the location of the bridge over the Huron River on Broadway Street, Ann Arbor. It is here where the act of discovery may first take place, on a route where people often walk, jog, and take their dogs amidst their own hectic schedules. Within this routine, the passer-by’s attention may be drawn to one of ten small, ornate, book-like objects placed in inconspicuous niches along the path. Once opened, this box will reveal a tiny bed, a lantern, and a journal, which the viewer may read, and connect with the thoughts and feelings of an tiny, unknown being. The possibility for continued discovery allows the viewer to seek more opportunities to read the journals by following the trail of boxes down to the river. Based on the journeyings of this magical life, the viewer may become aware of a new way of seeing their surroundings, and a sense of the underlying magic may be experienced.

And this is the journey that the journals reveal in succession:

Magic Boxes: a Journey Installation
Artist: Elise Beckman

The Journey:

Today, I discovered the river.
Today, I felt the precious water.
Today, I felt the purest breeze.
Today, I saw the people’s faces.
Today, I touched the smoothest rock.
Today, I heard the trees’ leaves
Today, I heard a child’s laughter
Today, I watched a dog running freely.
Today, I felt the sun’s warmth.
Today, my soul was wholly alive.

Final Plant Project

This is the final iteration of my plant project. I made a few changes so that the plant would not be so stuck inside of the box, but rather be more accessible so I can better take care of it. The same concepts still apply, only this iteration is much more caring towards the plant because it has the freedom to come out of its box sometimes and feel freer.

Here are some pictures:

Henceforth, I Am My Own Good Fortune

Artist: Elise Beckman
Materials: Lucky bamboo plant, pine wood, acrylic, plastic glue, fabric, metal hinges.

The name of this plant, the ‘Lucky Bamboo’, is a hoax concocted by the consumeristic Western world. In truth, the plant is neither ‘lucky’ as related to the practice of Feng Shui nor is it bamboo at all. It is actually a part of the lily family, and native to the rain forests of Africa, not Asia.
For this plant I have built a new housing to reveal its true identity through several stages of transformation. It begins as a transportable wooden box, painted black and worn as if for a gypsy to travel her fortune-telling. The box opens to a dramatic display where a black painted surface and purple fabrics behind surround the plant with a sense of mysticism and the divine. This display seems befitting for a crystal ball, but instead the plant stands alone as its own free entity. The clear drawer below it displays its proud statement: “Henceforth I am my own good fortune”.
With this shift of expectation, a rediscovery of the plant’s true identity may be experienced as a new reverence for its pure life force. The mobility of the plant allows me as its keeper to bring it with me wherever I go, collecting small wonders of nature in its drawer, and offering the opportunity to forge an ongoing relationship with this plant that is based on a respect for the luck it holds simply for what it is— a living being.

Henceforth I am my Own Good Fortune

Henceforth, I Am My Own Good Fortune

Artist: Elise Beckman
Materials: Lucky bamboo plant, pine wood, acrylic, plastic glue, fabric, metal hinges.

The name of this plant, the ‘Lucky Bamboo’, is a hoax concocted by the consumeristic Western world. In truth, the plant is neither ‘lucky’ as related to the practice of Feng Shui nor is it bamboo at all. It is actually a part of the lily family, and native to the rain forests of Africa, not Asia.
For this plant I have built a new housing to reveal its true identity through several stages of transformation. It begins as a transportable wooden box, painted black and worn as if for a gypsy to travel her fortune-telling. The box opens to a dramatic display where a black painted surface and purple fabrics behind surround the plant with a sense of mysticism and the divine. This display seems befitting for a crystal ball, but instead the plant stands alone as its own free entity. The clear drawer below it displays its proud statement: “Henceforth I am my own good fortune”.
With this shift of expectation, a rediscovery of the plant’s true identity may be experienced as a new reverence for its pure life force. The mobility of the plant allows me as its keeper to bring it with me wherever I go, collecting small wonders of nature in its drawer, and offering the opportunity to forge an ongoing relationship with this plant that is based on a respect for the luck it holds simply for what it is— a living being.

New Development! Soil in Kaleidoscope Suddenly Sprouts

Reporter Elise Beckman, April 2, 2012:

Over the weekend, the roots which had shown up just before critique of the latest project on waste suddenly shot up into the world as a plant sprout. The arrival of this new life was welcomed with awe and wonder by the creator of the kaleidoscope, considering the fact that the soil from which it sprouted was collected in the middle of winter from a frozen hole near a parking lot, spread around the floor of a classroom in the art school for a performance art piece in mid-February, left in a plastic bag in a backpack in her closet for a month and a half, and finally stuffed into a salt shaker with a tube in it. Apparently all this human trauma and the current confinement of the roots/ sprout between two panes of glass does not stop it from noticing the change from winter into spring, proving physically the concept behind the piece itself: that despite man's destructive force on the natural world, nature lives on, breaking down in invisible ways the waste humans leave behind and turning it into rich soil- the chance for the sprouting of new life.

Tiny—Invisible—Benevolent—Beings

Tiny—Invisible—Benevolent—Beings

Artist: Elise Beckman


In the natural world there exist billions of tiny microorganisms whose lives are vastly invisible to us, but which are responsible for breaking down waste in the landscape, and purifying our water which is so necessary for human life.
This small looking glass seeks to create an opportunity for participants to explore this invisible world which supports and sustains us through a small and personal discovery experience. The physical object resembles an hourglass in shape and presents stages of waste degrading vertically into soil, symbolizing the balance of the natural cycles occurring over time. By peering past these into the looking glass, an environment is revealed where tiny, luminescent beads and strings create a sense of the magic that underlies our natural existence.

Final Documentation for Project #2 'Veins'

Veins

Artist: Elise Beckman
Materials: steel rod, foam, fabric, plasma ball, sound piece

Veins serve a vital function in nature to communicate messages and send nutrients throughout the parts of a system. This interactive installation seeks to illuminate the unifying structure of these veins, which connects humans with all elements of the natural world: its rivers, plants, animals, etc; and ultimately hopes to reawaken in participants an awareness of the veins within themselves, which pump life through our bodies, finally creating an opportunity for these invisible connections between ourselves and other human beings to be made visible.

Project #3 Mini Assignment Assessment

After looking at my sound piece in class, I feel that the main ideas that inspired it can be sought at in a more effective way. For this piece I used sound from our tour of the waste water processing plant, to try and show a back and forth between the side of nature and the side of humans, pushing eventually towards a kind of balance between the two which is hinted at when the guide says “We’ll just keep following the river”. The most important part for me in this idea of balance between humans and nature is the continuous cycle which exists, that for humans to continue to live on this earth, they must use certain resources from the natural world, which they then turn into waste, and which nature renews by breaking it down and turning it into something new. It was the idea of these tiny, invisible, and benevolent beings which break down the waste and turn it into something usable again which most fascinated me at the plant, as they had taken these microorganisms which are present in natural rivers, and concentrated them to break down waste at a faster pace to compensate for man’s over-harvesting of resources, and overproduction of waste. This is how a balance is once again sought. 

I want my final project for this assignment to focus much more on bringing to light these small, invisible, but ever-important beings of nature, and how they are the key in connecting us with a new future. I want to use physical materials to make one or more objects that could seek to embody this connection, between ourselves and the forces that support our life here on this planet, and create the opportunity for a simple, new way of seeing the world.