With/in a Landscape
experimental project, 2021 - 2022
We are in the outdoors.
I am plugged into my computer and it is sensing me, itself, and the surrounding landscape, blending us all together in a series of recorded ones and zeros. My breath goes out into the wind, the wind whirs into the computer fan and drifts back to me again. We are a cyborg, an extended, expanded body. We are networks within a network within networks, constantly interpreted and interpreting.
As I reflect on this experience outdoors I wonder how this entanglement in a remote landscape can be contained and carried for sharing with others. How can multiple, simultaneous, and invisible states of being be expressed? This project aims to materialize the intangible interconnections our bodies have with technology and the living world. The vessels in this collection are sculpted from an intermingling of electrical impulses, where the human body, its extensions (technology), and the landscape are embodied and contained with/in the same vessel.
The forms presented here were generated from data collected during solo hikes in the Arctic Circle over two weeks in the summer of 2021. The data consisted of small electric impulses captured from my body, the computer, and the surrounding landscape. The data was recorded using a portable EEG helmet and converted into 3-dimensional objects using an algorithmic 3D modeling program. Each vessel is reflective of a unique moment in time in the remote Arctic landscape; hearing the wind whistle through the EEG sensors, feeling rocks slip under my feet, watching a tadpole swim. While scientific sensing equipment was used to collect this data, the resulting forms are not literal data visualizations; they are interpretations of the interplay between human and non-human existences, sculpted with artistic intent.
This project was supported in part by Ars Bioartica, Statens Kunstfond and Montserrat College of Art (USA). It has been shown as a part of Land, Mark, a group show at the Rocky Neck Art Colony in Gloucester, MA. It has also been featured in a pop-up exhibition at Vejle Bibliotekerne in Vejle, DK and as a part of the Vejle Kommune Artist-in-residence exhibition in Spinderihallerne, Vejle, DK.
+ Land, Mark Press Release
The forms presented here were generated from data collected during solo hikes in the Arctic Circle over two weeks in the summer of 2021. The data consisted of small electric impulses captured from my body, the computer, and the surrounding landscape. The data was recorded using a portable EEG helmet and converted into 3-dimensional objects using an algorithmic 3D modeling program. Each vessel is reflective of a unique moment in time in the remote Arctic landscape; hearing the wind whistle through the EEG sensors, feeling rocks slip under my feet, watching a tadpole swim. While scientific sensing equipment was used to collect this data, the resulting forms are not literal data visualizations; they are interpretations of the interplay between human and non-human existences, sculpted with artistic intent.
This project was supported in part by Ars Bioartica, Statens Kunstfond and Montserrat College of Art (USA). It has been shown as a part of Land, Mark, a group show at the Rocky Neck Art Colony in Gloucester, MA. It has also been featured in a pop-up exhibition at Vejle Bibliotekerne in Vejle, DK and as a part of the Vejle Kommune Artist-in-residence exhibition in Spinderihallerne, Vejle, DK.
+ Land, Mark Press Release
Rock formations, Saana Nature Area, FI.
Saana Fell, FI.
Native lichen growth, Saana Nature Area, FI.
Detail, rock formations, Saana Nature Area, FI.
A group of 3D meshes generated from my EEG data.
Sculptures being 3D-printed in PLA.
Hand assembly of 3D-printed sculpture parts.
First set of sculptures generated from EEG data. 3D-printed in bioplastic (PLA), assembled and finished by hand. Various dimensions.
Exhibition detail.
With/in a Landscape in the exhibition Sarah Trahan: Art/tech artist-in-residence at Spinderihallerne, Vejle, DK. Image courtesy of Jonas Normann.
Exhibition detail. Image courtesy of Jonas Normann.