[-empyre-] Introduction

Sun Jun 14 19:16:39 AEST 2015

Dear Anna,

I have also very curious about your expereriences wearing this suit. The 
German Artist group (http://urbancamouflage.de) also used the 
camouflaging phenomena to get another perspective to an environment. 
They took over the role of the invisible observer and created a new 
percpetion/dialogue with an environment. Photographer and biology 
scientist use it to get the most authentic experience of interactions 
between species. The video art clip *Bioluminescent Forest* 
<http://www.bioluminescent-forest.com/>**(http://www.bioluminescent-forest.com) 
illustrates these interations in very poetic style*.*

Another aspect regarding plant human interaction and "Anthropochory" 
interests me. The artwork Living Necklace by Paula Hayes 
(http://www.paulahayes.com/work/album/living-necklaces) uses a plant as 
a decoration and as a expression of our relationship with plants.  Laura 
Beloff's artwork A Unit (http://bioartsociety.fi/art-henvi/?page_id=6) 
expresses this relationship more dramatically. Her installations allows 
people to carry/wear a plant like parrot on their shoulder.  The plant 
becomes a daily companion or should I say almost a friend...
How do you perceive your plant based camouflage suit in that context? Do 
you feel reunited with plants? Do you distribute seeds or other germ 
buds during your performance?

For my master thesis I wrote a chapter about locomotion with plants. If 
you are interested feel free to read and comment
http://blog.derhess.de/2014/06/15/locomotion-applied-to-plants-for-public-spaces/

Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us!

All the best from Berlin
Florian

Am 13.06.2015 um 16:09 schrieb Patrick Keilty:
> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
>
>
> Thanks Alana! I'm Fascinated by your ghillie suit project! I'd also like to
> hear more about your experience wearing the suit, especially in urban
> environments, e.g. "uncamouflaging #16":
> http://alanabartol.com/artwork/2873744-Un-camouflaging-16.html. What might
> your nearly disappearing tell us about the relationship built environments
> and plants, or the way plants are part of the build environment of cities.
>
> For some reason, your discussion of transitional spaces also reminded me of
> Janine Marchessault's exhibit "Land/Side: Possible Futures." Obviously hers
> is a very different project -- and on a much, much larger scale -- but it's
> also about transitions between built and green spaces, particularly the
> border areas where green and built environments blend together along the
> "Greenbelt" in Ontario. (For those who don't know about Ontario's
> Greenbelt, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenbelt_(Golden_Horseshoe.)
> Working with everything from digitized diaries, 3D projections and
> augmented reality, the artists in Marchessault's exhibit propose new
> histories and new futures for the use of land.
>
> I'm just wondering how your project, too, draws attention to juxtapositions
> and transitions between built and green environments, and how it might
> also, in some ways, speak to transitional temporalities. In "uncamouflaging
> #16" the suit looks like an urban plant that has been neglected, despoiled,
> and diminished over time. I wonder, then, how neglected plants remind us of
> the passage of time, even as they go seemingly unnoticed. Are these
> neglected plants part of an urban subconscious that remind us of mortality?
>
> Patrick Keilty
> Assistant Professor
> Faculty of Information
> Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies
> University of Toronto
> http://www.patrickkeilty.com/
>
> On Fri, Jun 12, 2015 at 10:30 AM, Natasha Myers <nmyers at yorku.ca> wrote:
>
>> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
>> Thanks so much, Alana, for getting our 2nd week conversation moving.
>>
>> I was sad to miss the performance of the Ghillie Suit last summer, but
>> remember seeing remarkable images. I love the haunting, looming, lurking
>> and uncanny effect of the plant-human form that seems to shape-shift in a
>> space of near invisibility. Can you say more about the kinds of shifts the
>> performance effects in human/plant encounters? Does the piece perhaps speak
>> to the ways that plants are so often relegated to the undergrowth, the
>> backdrop on the stage where human and animal agencies are so actively
>> performed?
>>
>> What is your experience of wearing the suit. Of nearly disappearing? Is
>> there a way that the piece encourages the performer to *vegetalize* their
>> movements and sensorium? I've been spending a lot of time thinking about
>> where the human (always more than human) sensorium meets the vegetal
>> sensorium...and am becoming convinced that the sensorium of those whose
>> lives and work turns around plants gets vegetalized...
>>
>> I would love to hear more!
>>
>> I'm also so glad to hear of your engagement with Jo Simalaya's work
>> Singing Plants. Such a remarkable piece that I have been thinking about for
>> a number of years in conversation with the scientific works of Indian
>> polymath JC Bose, who saw it as his life's work to give voice to the
>> unvoiced life of plants. Very much looking forward to sharing that work
>> soon!
>>
>> This would also be a great opportunity for our other moderators this week
>> to tell us more about the Plant Sex Consultancy...Such a remarkable work
>> that will I'm sure produce some fascinating threads of conversation!
>>
>> All the best,
>> Natasha
>>
>> Natasha Myers
>> Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology | Convenor, Politics of
>> Evidence Working Group | York University
>> 2032 Vari Hall, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario  M3J 1P3 Canada | Tel. (416)
>> 736-2100 x 22394 | Fax (416) 736-5768 | nmyers at yorku.ca
>> Website <http://www.yorku.ca/nmyers> | Plant Studies Collaboratory
>> <http://plantstudies.wordpress.com/> | Sensorium
>> <http://finearts.yorku.ca/sensorium> | The Technoscience Salon
>> <http://technosalon.wordpress.com/> | Politics of Evidence
>> <http://politicsofevidence.wordpress.com/> | The Write2Know Project
>> <http://write2know.ca/>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 2015-06-11, at 11:42 AM, <hello at alanabartol.com> <hello at alanabartol.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
>> Hello Everyone! I am delighted to join this discussion. Thank you Natasha
>> for inviting me to participate. I am an interdisciplinary artist, working
>> in performance, video, drawing, environmental art, installation and
>> community-engaged art. My collaborative and individual works explore
>> concepts of visibility and survival through our relationships with nature
>> and each other.
>>
>> "Forms of Awareness: Ghillie Suit" is a series that reveals and examines
>> the prevailing set of aesthetic and environmental concerns in North
>> American culture. The ghillie suit is traditionally used by military
>> snipers and hunters to camouflage the human body, allowing the wearer to
>> blend into various natural landscapes. In this series, the suit is
>> repositioned in the open air of suburban and urban spaces. Wearing the
>> suit, I appear as Ghillie in transitional zones, naturalized areas and
>> green spaces. The appearances or “un-camouflagings” are captured through
>> photography and video.
>>
>> I first learned about ghillie suits when I was living in Vermont and was
>> introduced to the suit at a nearby military base. It wasn’t until I moved
>> back to Windsor, Ontario, a city fraught with many environmental and
>> socio-economic issues, that the character “Ghillie” evolved and I began
>> making and wearing the suits.
>>
>> The suits are made of a combination of natural and synthetic materials,
>> which are tied and woven into a netting base. I then weave dried weeds,
>> grasses and other plants (found in the discarded yard waste), into the
>> suit. In suburban neighbourhoods, Ghillie appears in transitional zones,
>> 'naturalized' areas and green spaces. While Ghillie inspires many reactions
>> including fear, confusion, anger and laughter, she often remains unnoticed.
>>
>> This work has also been developed in collaboration with others. Last year
>> I worked in partnership with a group of teenagers to create their own
>> ghillie suits and develop a site-specific performance in Guildwood Park
>> (Toronto) for Restless Precinct, an exhibition and performance series. Jo
>> also participated in the exhibition and I had the pleasure of encountering
>> "Singing Plants Reconstruct Memory". It was one of the most memorable
>> pieces from the exhibition and I wanted to share a short reflection on the
>> experience:
>>
>> As my hands hovered above the plants, I was met with a chorus of chants,
>> beats and pulsating rhythms. Another woman (who I did not know) stood next
>> to me and we soon began a collaboration of sorts as we experimented with
>> the movement of our hands in relation to the plants and sound. There is
>> power and magic in technology...
>>
>> Upon receiving the transmission, I felt immersed in and permeated by the
>> sound. The sound was intense but I continued the playful collaboration with
>> the stranger beside me. Reflecting back on it now, the experience created a
>> bodily awareness that is often absent in my everyday encounters.
>> Thank you Jo for creating such a moving and poignant work. I wonder how
>> the installation for the Restless Precinct exhibition differed from other
>> iterations of the piece? How did you feel about presenting the work in a
>> park?
>>
>> Thank you and I look forward to the ongoing discussion.
>>
>>
>>
>> Alana
>>
>> Works from the Ghillie Suit series can be found here:
>>
>> http://alanabartol.com/section/333127-Forms-of-Awareness-Ghillie-Suit-A-Series-of-Un-camouflagings.html
>>
>> Video:
>> http://alanabartol.com/artwork/3716498-Forms-of-Awareness-Ghillie-Suit-An-Un-camouflaging.html
>>
>> Information about Restless Precinct can be found here:
>> http://restlessprecinct.ca
>>
>>
>>
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>> empyre at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au
>> http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>
>
> _______________________________________________
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