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.