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.

Plant Project Iteration #2 Progress

I’ve developed my idea of the ideal home for my lucky bamboo plant since the last iteration. I realized during critique that creating something small and portable were both very important and desirable for me as a creator for this habitat for my plant. Neither were present in the last iteration, but I decided that making a construction that has these elements and focusing on good craftsmanship/ sturdy structure would be the best plan for this iteration. I have worked a lot on this over the break, and will be done by the time class rolls around on Monday the 5th, but here are some pictures of what I have so far. The finishing touches will be to paint the outside black, put touches of fabric inside, and finishing the drawer. I might also put two clasps on the front bottom panel as extra hold for it. 

I am very happy with the structure I have created, and feel my lucky bamboo will be happy here. The concept is still the same: the breaking out of the lucky bamboo from its cliche mysticism, represented by the upper portion of the box which resembles what one may see as a gypsy’s glass ball, with the starlike holes, and the glass ball, with holes drilled where the leaves burst through its confining walls. The bottom portion exposes the soil that grounds the plant in the earth through the clear container, and has a drawer with the statement ‘henceforth, i am my own good fortune’, a quote from Walt Whitman, nature poet and deeply rooted human being whom I greatly respect. This statement and the form expose the truth of the plant, that it is ‘lucky’ simply because it is a living being and growing from the earth. The drawer holds little nick-nacks and things of nature that I myself like to pick up, and which are reminders of this truth of existence. I will personally be interested in keeping this plant in this loving enclosure, and bringing it with me places, as it has a portable feature. In this way, we are living companions and friends.




By the way, his name is Oliver.

Veins

This project finally came together yesterday, when I was able to finally kick it out and get everything together to present my installation to the class for critique. Here are some pictures that are not well-considered or well-lit documentation of my piece. They simply show what is there, but I will post better documentation very soon. (next week)

Here is my current artist statement:

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.

There were many aspects to bringing this project together: there was the conceptualizing, which took place two weeks, before, then there was sketching, ordering the plasma ball, recording/ editing the sound piece which took place the week before, worrying about/ receiving the plasma ball in the mail, buying the right materials: metal rod of various sizes and thicknesses, foam and fabric; cutting/ bending/ welding together the rods and sheet metal/ constructing the structure, renting the room via emails, instructions, form-signing, etc, and finally covering the metal bands with foam and sewing fabric on them, painting the metal black, and bringing everything into the studio after picking up the key, and playing the sound with the installation.
It totally felt so great to have all of that in one room, and have people actually participate with the piece. I felt as I was listening to the audio in the room that I was feeling the meditative awareness I had hoped to evoke with the installation, and I felt a lot of satisfaction in that. Also, to hear people say that 1) they were feeling connected to the other person across from them, and 2) they were feeling connected to their own heartbeat, just made me so happy because that is what it is all about.

From here I feel I will make some corrections to make the whole thing run smoother/ better:

1) I will bring down the level of the hearbeat so it's not so ear shattering/ doesn't drown out the voice as much

2) will edit out parts of the narration that don't really apply in the finished state of things

3) will re-weld the joint of one of the support rods which has broken (not vital, but will be better re-welded)

4) will refine my artist statement so it says only what I want it to say and is more direct/ to the point

(this is my new artist statement: I think it's a lot clearer/ more direct to the point of what I want to convey

Veins


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


Veins serve a vital function throughout nature to communicate messages and to connect the different parts of a system. This interactive installation seeks to renew in individuals an awareness of their own heartbeat, pumping life continually through their veins, and to illuminate the invisible connections that draw themselves and other living beings together as parts of a whole.

5) and finally, I will document the installation! I wasn't able to keep the key to the photo studio for another day, but I will re-rent it next week with some video equipment, and will ask someone to be the other person in the documentation and will post that to this blog.

I feel very proud of the hard work I put into this installation and how it worked out. I look forward to finishing it up, and maybe finding out where this piece can find a place to be shown/ have a life of its own!

Art is exciting.

Have a great day!

-Elise

Idea for Final Project #2

I am going to create an interactive installation, in which two people at a time can walk into a small, dark room and connect themselves to a fixture which straps around their chest and wrists, and leads from both people opposite each other into a sound-activated lightning ball in the center of the room. My heartbeat audio piece will be playing, making the lighting in the ball pulse along with the heartbeat. Each person will see the other with this glowing orb in the general area of the heart, and the purpose is to feel connected to their own veins and heartbeat, as well as to the other person's veins and heartbeat.

I am going to be doing a lot of welding for this, and I already ordered the lightning ball online, to be here within the next week and a half (in time for critique).

I'm really loving how this is all coming together-- installations are something I tend to gravitate towards, for their ability to create a tangible experience for the 'viewer', and I have experience in welding/ large sculpture and sound/ creating a space, which makes me really confident in moving forwards towards this final piece.

As a side note, the process we've gone through for this project has been immensely helpful for me, as I tend to have an initial reaction and just go for it. This has allowed me to slow down, branch my thought process out a bit, put work into three smaller projects, and then combine them into something that really is what I want to create, and not just following an initial impulse. It feels very full and complete-- something I am going to pursue to continue in everything I make. This class is such a great preparation for becoming an artist and what that would mean, and I am excited for this wonderful challenge!

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.

Project #2: Getting down to business

This weekend I'm going to be putting into effect two of my three small projects for Project #2. I'm focusing on Veins. Here is my written proposal to explain my approach to the topic:

VEINS:

With this project I want to reconnect people with the vein systems that are so ubiquitous in the world in which we live. This begins with reminding people of the veins that exist inside of themselves, whose function allows them to live and grow: this includes the cardiovascular system which transports oxygen and nutrients throughout the body and removing wastes and toxins, and the nervous system which allows the brain to form synaptic connections, and allows the senses to send messages from the external world through receptors to the brain for recognition. 

The next step after people become aware of the vital presence and functioning of veins within themselves is to get them in touch with the veins that exist in all other life forms, and how they unite humans with all of life. This includes other animals in their similar cardiovascular and nervous systems, plant forms with their vascular systems including the xylem and phloem to carry food and water upward through veins, and the living earth itself whose veins are the river systems that transverse its topography and transport water through the land.

My main instinct for this project is to get as many senses involved in this project as possible, allowing the individuals that experience this to become aware through tactile experience. This means as a whole I’m interested in creating an installation piece which involves viewer interaction and several engaging components. This could occur in different forms. 

For the first concept of a project, I have the idea that viewers could walk inside a room in which a plant sits in the middle of a bare floor. The only other thing in the room is the constant sound of a human heartbeat. In this simple way, the idea of the growth of the plant can be associated with the heart’s pulse. Similarly, there could be another room (this one dark) in which the plant on the bare floor is the only thing except for a constant pattern of lights which represent the pattern of synapses firing in the brain. These both involve a relatively simple aesthetic and are based on the juxtaposition of something tactile and something intangible to leave the viewer to make a connection between the two.

My second idea becomes more involved based on similar concepts. I was also interested in the diffusion aspect of veins-- how capillary action allows a plant to absorb nutrients upward against gravity, similar to how a human heart beats despite all odds against its continued beating. One of my five approaches to further explore the topic was to try putting a sheet of paper or thin wood into a bowl of colored water to see if it will be absorbed upward through the paper. Depending on how this research goes, I was thinking it might be interesting to incorporate this visual experiment into an installation in which this is going on as a central device to show the work of veins in action. Surrounding this I could also incorporate some of the same elements I had in mind before, such as having the colored water soak up then into a plant and seeing the effects, or having this set in a room in which the audio of a heartbeat is playing/ the visual strobe lighting of synapses in the same setting.

As a simpler alternative, I could also have an installation which lights up whenever the viewer touches something, like a plant, to show that signal that is being sent to the brain from the sensory receptors. This would be interactive and demonstrate the connection well between person and plant-- especially if the plant also lights up. This could be accomplished especially well with lights that are focused directly on person and plant, and with a simple setting.

My final concept for a project looks at the way that river systems fit into this larger idea, as well as at the communicative/ transportation aspect of veins. I would create an installation in which people are invited to write down messages and send them down a constructed river system indoors. At the end of the riverway, water soaks up the roots of a tree. In this way, people can become aware of the permeability of the membranes of living beings, and the power of messages. A meditative state could be enhanced by the inclusion of a heartbeat in the room of the installation. Perhaps there could be other audial aspects, like a story being told, or some kind of explanation of the aspects of the piece.

I am very excited to go deeper into exploring these options and developing them into something substantial and meaningful.

 These are my two in-class brainstorming maps I did to elaborate on these ideas:

My three projects are going to be basically parts of a greater installation that are going ot be accomplishable within the time frame and can contribute to the final project.

1) I'm going to rent a Zoom sound recorder and record heartbeats.

2)I'm going to figure out how to make a veins system out of lights with some sort of switch system to put on a plant.

3) I'm going to find/ take pictures of vein systems and overlay them for luminocity in photoshop.

These I'll do over the weekend, since the first is kind of a side small project easily accomplishable I think.

4) Then, for class on Monday I'll bring in materials for my fourth mini project which will be to create a small indoor river/ stream system. We'll see about that one as well, it should be interesting and something I can work on during class.

Alright! That's my plan! I'm so inspired by and excited about this project and what will come of it. I also think this extremely layered and interation-based brainstorming kind of process is really helping me to get creative and push myself beyond my original ideas and their constraints. It will help me a lot in the future as an artist to think in this manner rather than settling on things early on. And that's what this class is all about right? The process, and learning how to be your own artist!

I love it.

First Iteration of the Plant Project

This week I created a full-scale version of my plant house. As I had wanted it to, it had the appearance on the outside of an old crystal ball, and then was convertible to turn into a sort of nature altar. The technical difficulties, however, ran this prototype awry. I had a lot of trouble with making the pump (I know how to do it, but without previous experience I did some steps out of order and it did not turn out). Also, the construction of the box itself turned out to be quite difficult, and I would know how to do that better next time as well. Also, an internal desire for mobility in my plant structure grew in me both during the difficult process of transporting it while making it, as well as during the critique when I got to see what everyone else was doing with their plant structures. I decided that in the next iteration I will make a much smaller version of what I made this time, with much better construction and leaving out entirely the pump (it is not at all essential to the project, and really is just an unnecessary hassle to be honest). I am very excited to create a house for my plant that conveys all I want it to, and is able to be brought with me wherever I go. I want to be very good friends with this plant, and, let’s face it, who wants a huge 12” by 12” box with a bowl on it taking up all of your desk space? Nobody, not even me! I am very excited to take what I’ve learned and apply it to a more streamlined and successful, smaller version that I can be happy with and use in my own life!

Here are the pictures of my first iteration: