3 Small Projects

This weekend I completed three small projects to further explore the subject of veins. Two have to do with the idea that for my final project I would create an installation which evokes an awareness of the veins inside of each person, and the connection these veins have with the veins in all of the world and its systems. For these two I explored visual and audial ways to convey this. The first is a visual comparison of vein systems in all its various forms:




The second is a sound piece, meant to create a meditative experience that increases awareness of the heartbeat and the purpose of veins:

(I had a hard time uploading just the sound piece, so this is the sound piece along with the video above, but if you don't watch the video, and close your eyes, you can get a better idea of what the sound piece is doing, since the video is so hectic and heartattack inducing, while the goal of the sound piece is to be meditative and calming.)

The third project took a different kind of look at veins, exploring them through a physical representation of the veins and the way they connect us all. To be worn by two people, this piece is a type of small performance to promote awareness of the veins in each, as well as the invisible-made-tangible connection between the two.
Here is a picture, along with a written explanation:

External Vein System

Elise Beckman

This small apparatus is worn on the left hands of two people to form an external connection between them through a form that resembles the vein system. 

Elastic bands around the wrists wrap around one of the main arteries which runs through the wrist, bringing attention to this area and surrounding it like the elastic walls of the veins themselves. 

This band leads up the back of the hand with foil tinsel which follows up to the fingertips in a branching vein-like pattern. 

From the fingertips of each hand, strings are attached and connect with a string from the wrists in the center. 

The intention of this worn object is to bring both of the wearers’ attention to the vein systems in their own bodies (increase interoceptive awareness), as well as to promote awareness of one of the main purposes of veins: to send vital nutrients along channels and communicate messages-- a purpose which all living beings and systems share in their concurrent use of vein systems (humans, animals, plants, rivers), and which creates a fundamental connection between these two and all of life.