[-empyre-] June on empyre now open for discussion!

[jsa]

Happy June, everyone!  Thanks for starting off the discussion.  My
apologies for joining later in the week.

I am an interdisciplinary artist who works with community stories,
interactive installations and soundscapes.  My ongoing project, "Singing
Plants Reconstruct Memory" involves three living banana leaf plants.  I
grew up in the Philippines and I remember these plants as towering over me
in my Lola's garden.  The ones I use in the installation are about 3" tall
and housed in individual pots.

The three plants can represent the traditional Western narrative of a
story: the beginning, middle, and ending.  They are also holders of
cultural and body memory.

Each plant has ruptures in the leaves created by a metal bottlecap to
represent "soul wounds" or missing parts of the narrative. Much of
Philippine history has been written by colonizers.  I am interested in
revisiting family and community stories as as step towards decolonization
and reindigenization.

In my installation, I suture the leaves with conductive thread that is
connected to an electronic grid with touch sensors.

When people reach out towards the plants, the electricity in our bodies
trigger the sensors and the plants sing, tell a story, or project images.

The living plants act as in intermediary between the human being and the
technology.  This has generated some interesting results:

1. The plants seem sensitive different people's energy.  Some people need
to actually touch the plant to make a connection; some can just hover above
the plant; some can just enter the room and the plants immediately start to
sing.

2. There have been times when no people are present and the plants trigger
each other to sing. This seems to indicate an ongoing "communication"
between plants that the sensors make "audible" to people.

3. The code I've written for the electronic grid is simple: touch = ON,
release = OFF.  However, the plants sometimes reverse the code.  They may
spontaneously start singing without pause, and require touch to stop.
Perhaps this is a way to draw people's attention?

4. When I water the plants with the sensors attached.  They all sing.  I
sing back.  It feels like a mutual exchange.

That is just a short introduction to my project and some observations.
Thank you for posting questions for us.  I will respond soon.

Thanks,

Jo

Jo SiMalaya Alcampo

josimalaya.com



*UPCOMING:*

*Subtle Technologies Conference
<http://subtletechnologies.com/festival/festival-2015/>*

Sun May 31, 10AM-12PM, Panel Discussion at Artscape Youngplace



*LIFT OFF! Festival at Cahoots Theatre*

Fri June 19, 8 PM: free public reading of Hilot Means Healer

Sun Jun 21, 7 pm: Storytelling event, "Shaken Roots"



Asinabka Indigenous Arts Festival
<http://www.asinabkafestival.org/Home.html>

August 19 - 23, Exhibition at Gallery 101, Ottawa
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