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

[Murat Nemet-Nejat]

Jo, this is absolutely fascinating work, also a very suggestive experiment.
You are using techniques one might use trying to communicate with extra
terrestrials, understanding a totally different kind of code. I suppose in
the colonizers' eyes the indigenous people are extra terrestrials--it is
amazing how understand something in its own terms, entering zones of true
discomfort, trying to comprehend universes which must always remain beyond
one ken has political implications.

I have two questions specifically relation to you project:
a) The music the leaves play, the sounds they make, are they programmed by
you? Could you elaborate? Are these sounds generated are by the leaves or
programmed by you and go through the leaves' mediation?

b)
"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.*"
In the case of people who when entering the room the plants immediately
start to sing, do plants stop singing when the same people leave the room?

Ciao,
Murat


On Fri, Jun 5, 2015 at 8:25 PM, jsa <jo.simalaya at gmail.com> wrote:

> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
>
> 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
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au
> http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
>
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