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

Mon Jun 8 10:10:18 AEST 2015

Thanks for your comment, Ricky.  This project is centred around trauma and
healing. Here are some responses to your questions:

1) In her book, Trauma and Recovery, Judith L. Herman states “The ordinary
response to atrocities is to banish them from consciousness. Certain
violations of the social compact are too terrible to utter aloud: this is
the meaning of the word unspeakable.”

The aim of my work with plants is to reconstruct what has been lost and
repressed through trauma: the unspeakable.

Each plant bears identical punctures or “soul wounds” sutured together
using conductive thread.  Each wound is identical in shape but each plant
is in a different stage of recovery depending on their unique ability to
heal themselves.

This installation is based upon a childhood memory of creating “pesos”
(coins) by pressing a metal bottle cap into the leaves of a Banana plant.
As a child, I did not consider the consequences of my actions. Then I
noticed that a clear fluid oozing from the punctured leaves and felt bad
for hurting the plants.  I attempted to place the cuttings back in the
leaves but it was too late.

When I returned to the garden the next day, I discovered that the plants
were in the process of healing themselves. Some formed a rubbery membrane
around the lacerations.  Other plant fibers knitted together to form a scar
around the wounds.

Growing up in North America has displaced my sense of belonging to
Philippine culture, however I can still conjure the sensations of those
healing plants as if it they were here, in this room with us.   My
installation attempts to revisit these fragmented senses.

While Singing Plants Reconstruct Memory is based on a personal memory, my
work is fundamentally connected to the social and political consequences of
war and occupation in the Philippines.

I have firsthand experience of how systemic violence can resonate in
subsequent generations if soul wounds are not healed.

Singing Plants Reconstruct Memory embodies the process of reconnecting with
cultural memory, reflecting on the social, political roots of trauma, and
piecing together the remains.

Interactivity is key to this process of transformation and recovery.  When
participants touch the plants, they sing Hudhud chants of the Ifugao
people, play indigenous instruments, and tell a story of remembrance (via
video projection).

The people who engage with the plants, represent “indirect witnesses” –
those who did not directly experience the trauma but whose presence and
engagement makes it possible to reconstruct fragments left behind.

2) I spend a lot of time with plants and healers, including an indigeneous
spiritual healer from Turtle Island.

I ask for guidance on how to work with plants in an ethical way. I have
learned rituals that I practice before working with the plants, during an
installation, and after I remove the conductive thread.

It involves communicating intent, making offerings, asking permission, and
waiting for a response.  If you do not receive permission, you keep
waiting. If you receive permission, you give thanks and take on the
responsibility of working with a living being with a spirit of its own.

I also use "tacit knowledge" to decide how to proceed - a cultural value
based upon Filipino Psychology. Sometimes there is permission.  Sometimes
there is not.  In that case, I wrap the thread around the plant instead. In
fact, this is how I have proceeded with most of my installations over the
past five years.

When I remove the sensors, I engage in another ritual. Afterwards, the
plants live with my family and are nurtured in the company of other plants.

3) I am grateful for the opportunity to work with plants. It has been a
healing process, and one that continues to teach me how to engage with the
natural world, living beings, and spirit beings.

My intent to is share the experience with others and engage in dialogue.
We are at a crisis point in terms of our relationship with Mother Earth.  I
hope my work contributes to the conversation towards healing this
relationship.

Thanks,
Jo

On Sun, Jun 7, 2015 at 1:12 PM, Ricky Ray <tykal49 at gmail.com> wrote:

> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
> Hi Jo,
>
> I find the project quite interesting, and potentially valuable in the
> sense of expanding awareness of, or at least drawing attention to
> plant-to-plant, plant-to-human, and plant-to-world (and vice versa)
> communication, response, mutuality. I wonder about the traumatic aspects
> though, in particular the decision to inflict, the experience of inflicting
> and spending so much time around the plants after inflicting, and the
> future for the plants, now that you've engaged with their paths.
>
> Would you mind sharing your thinking around the trauma? Questions you may
> have asked yourself and worked through; asked the plants and tried to hear,
> etc.?
>
> And likewise, what future do you envision for them, or at least your
> involvement with them?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Ricky
>
> 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
>>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au
> http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
>

-- 

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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