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In our work we explore the nexus of biology, technology and aesthetics
through interactive robotic sculpture and digital processes.
Our LABORATORY FOR EPHEMERAL INVESTIGATIONS, (2002) is a unique traveling research center and learning environment. Like scientists, we use technology for creative problem solving, but our research goals are neither rational nor practical. Instead our ephemeral investigations are aesthetic, social and poetic. We engage gallery goers in a quest to understand our relationship with our environment and to bridge the polarities of nature and technology, art and science, life and death, thinking and feeling, body and mind. The exhibition includes interactive sculptural installations, animated drawings generated from genetic algorithms, and live video of microscopic organisms. For instance, ACUPUNCTURE FOR TEMPORAL FRUIT (1999) [1] introduces a sequence of suspended sterile environments in which tomatoes are pierced by acupuncture needles triggered by viewers' presence. INSTRUMENT FOR MEDIATED TERRAIN (2001) [2] is a series of miniature moss gardens that are stroked, poked and prodded by robotic tools in response to visitors' movements. We are interested in complex relational cycles of growth and death where human-made technology meets nature. Here, the garden is a meditation on the relationship of the viewer to the artwork, technology to nature, and the temporal state of all forms of life. Electronic devices weave a connection between the aluminum-clad gardens and caretake the living moss. Mechanical arms hovering over the landscapes activate only when people come close to observe. The interaction between technology and the moss gardens directly depends on these visitors. One can imagine that after years of this interaction, the mounds of moss, peat and sand would be subtly rearranged -- each landscape altered through the impact of observation. The gardens are purposefully created to be low to the ground so that the viewer can have the experience of flying over -- presiding over -- a mountainous landscape. There is an overt and observable relationship between the presence of an audience and the action of the devices. From a distance the mechanisms are still. It is only when the viewer is closely observing an individual garden that the motion of the corresponding arm is triggered. When they step away, or move on the motion is stopped. The gardens are alive and continue to grow throughout the duration of the exhibition, slowly shaped by human activation of technology. Other devices include CAROUSEL FOR INVERTEBRATE BROADCASTING, (2002) an interactive rotating petre dish of flatworms; TELEVISION FOR BIOLOGICAL TRAJECTORIES, (2002) a series of small scale vignettes of real and virtual worms; CHAMBERS FOR THE OBSERVATION OF A DECLINE FROM A PROSPEROUS CONDITION, (2002) for comparing real and simulated life forms; and ROOM FOR THE PROJECTION OF THE LAW OF INTUITIVE ASSOCIATION, (2002) a large scale, interactive animation referencing DNA and the double helix - changing in tempo, opacity and duration based on user input. This laboratory, or its individual parts, has been presented at The Decordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln Massachusetts; The Thorne-Sagendorph Gallery at Keene State College, Keene New Hampshire; the Schlosberg Gallery at Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, Massachusetts; and the Lamont Gallery at Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire.
Jennifer Hall, a sculptor, has been a pioneer in interactive media and art-science collaboration for over 25 years and is presently engaged in the refocusing of biological material as an art form. Blyth Hazen navigates the space between painting, computer animation, and robotics. Notes 1. LABORATORY FOR EPHEMERAL INVESTIGATIONS is detailed in Jennifer Hall and Blyth Hazen, "Do While Studio", in Woman, Art and Technology, Judy Malloy, ed. (MIT Press, 2003) pp. 290-297 2. INSTRUMENT FOR MEDIATED TERRAIN (2001 aluminum, moss, electronics, software, and mechanical devices). More information and photographs of the installation are available at http://www.dowhile.org/physical/projects/exeter/index.html |