Chaos, Growth, and Pandemic

For my ART340 Project Proposal, I've decided to combine the following elements in a single piece of art:

Musical Instruments

Pandemic-induced Waste

Organics 

I wanted to spark conversation on a few important topics that are extremely relevant at the present moment: the challenges and changes COVID has brought to the Music Performance Industry, the environmental impact of the pandemic, and the fact that healing and recovery is possible. 

~the complex worldscape of rainworld~

Image caption: a tiny slugcat stands on the edge of a complex, long-abandoned machine. Tall red grass is stemming from below the machine. It's late afternoon and clear weather, but the sky is dark grey.

~"alive" nicotine-contaminated water of Thjis Biersteker~

Image caption: multiple transparent tubes are tied into a knot, with a smoked cigarette at its center. Water, darkened with nicotine, is flowing through the tubes at various speeds. 

 

Heavily inspired by artists such as Tania Candiani (for her ability to supply the artistic vision with rigorous research and collaboration), Thijs Biersteker (for the high degree of interactivity and change within all of his work), and Joar Jakobsson (for the incredibly immersive, lived-in virtual environments he creates), the goal of this work is to create an immersive, highly detailed and twisted environment that utilizes familiar elements to create its own unique simulation. I hope to prioritize the works' elements in the following way, as it seems that the work is quite ambitious and my time is limited:

1. Create a complex, whole, organic-feeling environment using old musical intruments and waste produced from the pandemic. It should resemble a forest of some sort.

2. Add living things to that environment- plants that will survive and grow within my conditions. 

3. Add mechanical/engineered elements to the artwork: integrate a produced soundscape into the environment, add lighting and/or motion to the work. 

~other-wordly handmade machinery of Tania Candiani~

Image Caption: in a large room, 3-legged machines about 4 feet tall are reaching onto canvas above them (which is hanged from the ceiling), drawing patterns that resemble borderlines.

By the scope of work and effort, 1st element will be the largest undertaking. First, I plan on sketching out its entire process to estimate whether the latter two elements are at all possible to complete within 1.5 months. In case the 1st element itself is too large of an undertaking, I will shift my efforts to one of the two other projects:

• Creating a complex 3D environment that can be experienced visually and aurally. It will revolve around similar topics of navigating through the pandemic's various challenges.
• Create a physical soundmachine that will be made of waste and use only self-generated energy to create sound. There are two possibilities, first being the creation of an "arc" around one of the pathways on campus that will utilize various waste-made simple musical instruments like drums/shakers/bells, and the 2nd being a mechanical "wastebox" that will rely on solar energy to randomly produce "organic" sounds.
• the 2nd option sounds extremely fun, to be honest, but will require an enourmuos amount of collaboration.

With this initial framework established, I will create two "progress update" posts every week until the project is complete to keep a steady workflow and high degree of accountability and responsibility. Procrastination is too real, cuz.