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:

My Lucky Bamboo!

Last week I received an orphan plant in CFC 3: Nature. It was, I later discovered, what is commonly referred to as a lucky bamboo. Here are some sketches of it:

I did some research and found out that this plant is, interestingly enough, neither lucky nor bamboo. Hilarious, right! It is entirely unrelated to the plant species of real bamboo, being related rather to the lily family. Its scientific name is Dracaena Sanderiara, and it is native to the rainforests of West Africa and the Congo (NOT to any part of Asia, from which much of its mysticism is generated). The idea of the plant being lucky is based on its being linked somehow with the practice of the Asian philosophy of Feng Shui. My guess is that this link has been constructed solely for the purpose of selling a sense of the exotic and mystic to silly Westerners who don't know any better, bolstered by the fact that the plant is very easy to maintain and cheap to grow/ produce (and happens to resemble what we Westerners think of as actual bamboo). Here is my research on the 'lucky bamboo':

My Lucky Bamboo

The orphan plant I picked up in class turned out to be a specimen of the plant commonly known as the Lucky Bamboo. These plants can be picked up at most garden stores, some gift shops and even many grocery stores in America, being relatively common gifts for home and indoor decoration. They are not in any way native to the Western Hemisphere, but are valued because of their popular folklore of having significance in the Eastern practice of Feng Shui. These plants contain much symbolism in these Eastern practices, including their ability to link the natural elements of wood and, water, earth, and fire with the tying of a red ribbon around the stalk into a balance, allowing for the positive flow of energy. The number of stalks in the arrangement also points to the area of the owner’s life that will receive luck: 2 stalks means love, 3 or 5 means happiness, 5 or 7 means good health, 8 means wealth, 9 is good fortune, 10 is perfection, and 21 is powerful blessings. The interesting thing about all of this is that both the ‘luck’ and the ‘bamboo’ of the lucky bamboo are almost entirely fabricated fictions.

This plant, scientifically known as Dracaena Sanderiara, is in fact not related in the least to actual bamboo; it is a part of the Liliaceae, or Lily family. It is native to the tropical rainforests of west Africa in the Cameroon and Congo, where it lives in the understory of the forests. For this reason, dracaena saneriara is best kept in indirect sunlight, or else its leaves will turn yellow. In accordance with the wet soil of the rainforests, these plants are also typically sold in 2 to 3 inches of water, to be drained and resupplied every week or so to avoid rot. Besides being entirely unrelated to real bamboo, the ‘lucky bamboo’ is also completely non-native to the continent of Asia, from which the Feng Shui practice derives. It seems the lucky bamboo is, then, largely popular for its connotations rather than any actual properties it holds. The vastly growing Western fascination with what it perceives to be traditional Eastern practices such as Feng Shui, combined with the inherent hardy, easy-to-take-care-of and maintain disposition of the plant, has allowed it to gain a leg up in the marketing world, as is it is also easy to manufacture: these decorative plants are simply sections of older stems cut into small portions, and which grow roots and leaves when put in water or soil.

In its full commercial bliss, this plant can be twisted into intricate patterns and spirals, to be sold in the shapes of hearts and other curls. This is achieved by a tedious process of turning the plant all through its growth under one source of light, but adds much more monetary value to the plant as well as decorative value. Despite being marketed as a total fraud, the lucky bamboo is still a lovely plant, whose connotations can indeed brighten up a house with the idea of positive energy, and which seems to lift the spirits of the owner (me). I do enjoy my little orphan plant.

 Based on this information, I proceeded to imagine a housing for this plant which would seek to provide the sort of environment that is native to this plant. I wanted to create a sort of rainforest which would show the owner where this plant comes from, what its needs are, and perhaps create a more real connection between owner and plant than using it to bring an abstract concept of 'luck'. Here are some pictures of the mock-up structure I made as a temporary housing for the plant:
The white container here represents the pot of the plant. The rest of the photos imagine it is there, to show the mechanics better of how the housing would work.

Water poured into the plant's soil would drip through to the bottom of the plant's container, and through the holes in the bottom into the smaller box at the base of the structure. 
It would then be pumped up the orange straw, by means of a manual pump I would construct. (by pressing down on the top of the orange pump.

Water would be pumped out of the end of the orange tube into a filter which would remove any excess flourine which is damaging to the plant, which is often found in tap water, and filter down into the showerhead-like container suspended above the plant. The water then would rain down on the plant through little holes, like a rainforest, therefore continuing the water cycle.

The structure is also meant to have foliage surrounding the support beams, acting as the plant cover would in a rainforest, for this plant which is native to the understory of the rainforest and therefore indirect sunlight.

Water would be pumped and cycled once or twice a week by the owner-- a very simple process which could turn out to be meaningful in developing a more real and reality-based relationship between owner and plant.

_____


**PLAN FOR PERMANENT HOUSING:

Based on all that I have learned and discovered by researching this plant and thinking about a structure for it, I have decided that what interests me the most is both the myth/ hoax this plant his been made out to be, as well as the possibility for recognizing the innate magic/ luck inherent in this plant in a more real way, to find a way to show that this plant is lucky not because of its connection to Feng Shui or asian mysticism, but because it is a living being, which is sacred in and of itself. I seek to show this in a very different way. I want to create the possibility for the owner to first be aware of the sham, and then to reveal the real magic of the plant through a metamorphosis.


First, the plant will be kept in what appears to be a crystal ball. The hoax is apparent, in the gaudy magic-trick type set-up. The 'magic' happens when the 'magician' pushes a small lever (not very well concealed beneath some sparkly translucent fabric) to spray water into the crystal ball onto the plant.
This is to expose the kind of sham which this plant has been made to be by commercialism.

(Here are some pictures of the mock-up cardboard model I made in class on Wednesday to show this crystal ball idea:)

This is the inner structure that catches the water run-off and then where it attaches to teh pump. This had been modified, as now the inner structure for water will be much larger, and the plant's roots will be only in water, not in soil. So no pot for the plant anymore. (which in this model would have gone directly above the hole in the smaller inner container shown here).

The paper is supposed to represent the sparkly translucent fabric that would go over the crystal ball, shown by the strips of cardboard in a sphere-like shape here.)

The transformation and real meaning of the piece occurs when the side paneling of the structure is folded down to reveal a glass box exposing the roots of the plant, and creating the structure into a sort of altar for sacred objects of nature, which are meaningful to me as tiny articles of natural luck and magic, just as sacred as this plant is as a living being. Nothing is hidden after this transformation, and the structure not only serves as a functioning living system for the plant, but also as a beautiful sanctuary to show the majesty of this plant, the magic it holds just for being alive, inherent in itself. In this way, the plant is indeed lucky, and a real relationship can take place between plant and owner.

I am very excited to create a working model of this entire structure for wednesday!

woot, nature!

yes