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

Sun Jun 7 08:31:42 AEST 2015

 eat happened with the woman entering and leaving the room is amazing. Her
explanation even more so.

Murat

On Sat, Jun 6, 2015 at 1:59 PM, Natasha Myers <natasha.myers at gmail.com>
wrote:

> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
> Hi all,
> just in case Jo Simalaya's post didn't come through for you...this is a
> reply to Murat!
> best,
> natasha
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: jsa <jo.simalaya at gmail.com>
> Date: Sat, Jun 6, 2015 at 11:45 AM
> Subject: Re: June on empyre now open for discussion!
> To: empyre at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au
>
>
> Hi Murat, thank you for your questions.  I'm glad to share my work with
> empyre participants and appreciate the support of my project.
>
> In response to 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?"
>
> > I have programmed the sounds.  During my research process, I travelled
> to the Cordillera mountain region of the Philippines to meet with
> indigeneous elders, scholars and what Katrin Guia names as "Culture
> Bearers".  My purpose was to inquire how artists can incorporate an ethical
> code of conduct when working with Indigeneous Knowledges Systems and
> Practices (IKSP).
>
> I was able to listen and get permission to make sound recordings of the
> Hudhud, an epic chant sung by the Ifugao People to mark harvest season,
> deaths, and other historical events. I also recorded indigenous instruments
> made of brass and bamboo materials. Those are the sounds that play when
> people reach out to the plants. This action is a metaphor for a
> reconnection to our indigenous selves. Author and educator Lee Maracle of
> the Sto:loh Nation, teaches that language and culture are never truly
> lost.  We are simply disconnected.  One strategy is to learn the
> socio-political reasons why we are disconnected then reach out with one
> word, one vowel, one sound.
>
> In response to 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?"
>
> > Yes, in one instance I was showing the exhibition in a closed space at
> OCADU.  I was standing a few feet away from the plants talking to a group
> of students visiting for our annual graduate exhibition.  The plants were
> not singing.
>
> A woman entered the doorway, which was about 10 feet away from the plants,
> and all the plants immediately started singing.  We all turned to her in
> surprise.  She stepped backwards because she thought she was interrupting a
> presentation, and the plants stopped singing.
>
> I invited her inside the room.  She entered and the plants started singing
> in response to her presence.  She seemed confused so I introduced myself
> and explained my project.  She laughed and explained that she is a Reiki
> practitioner who has developed her energy field to radiate widely outside
> her body.  That is how she moves in the world.
>
> This made me consider how plants may be able to radiate their field of
> communication in ways that are invisible and inaudible to most people.
>
> On Fri, Jun 5, 2015 at 8:25 PM, jsa <jo.simalaya at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> 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
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
> --
> 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
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> 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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