My second event for the quarter was TA Eli Joteva's solo exhibition entitled mnemoawari, held in the Experimental Digital Arts room at the Broad Art Center.
The underlying theme of the exhibition centered around representing our memories using physical manifestations. Specifically, three frozen ice spheres, each containing within them items chosen by Eli for their significant in her memories. The first of these spheres was made out of red flowers.The second was made out of wildflowers and sand from the desert. The final one was made of mushrooms, supposedly from a dream Eli once had about mushrooms.
The exhibition could be split into three distinct areas, symbolizing the past, present, and future.
The first area consisted of projections of the three slowly rotating ice spheres, termed "cryo sculptures". As described by Eli, these animations were created by meticulously taking images of the spheres from all different angles and meshing them together to create a 3D model. The images were taken shortly after freezing them, effectively capturing the ice spheres as they were in the "past," right after their creation.
Moving onto the second part of the exhibition, we see the ice spheres themselves, suspended from the ceiling by long ropes. As time progresses the spheres begin melting, dripping into containers placed directly underneath each sphere. To add to the visceral perception of time moving forward, a microphone was used to capture the dripping noise of one of the spheres as the drops of water hit a pan. These sounds were then amplified and played throughout the entire room, giving off an almost ominous feeling as we walked through the exhibit.
In the event description, Eli describes this process as the sculptures releasing "their entropic potential into virtual and material memory." The process served to capture the idea that despite our desires to hold onto our memories in the present, we must inevitably release them, or let them go, in order to move into the future and form new memories. In other words, the entropic behavior of the spheres as the thermal energy excites the ice turning it into water symbolizes the process of letting go. I found this metaphor to be particularly elegant and really helped me to engage in the meaning behind the exhibit. Eli explained her inspiration behind this by noting that nowadays, we hear all about global warming and its rampant environmental effects on Earth's polar regions.
The final component of this "present" section of the exhibit was a virtual reality demo. Using the provided VR goggles, we were able to get a perspective from inside one of the ice spheres. An interesting effect applied to the view was a visual glitch that occurred every time a dripping sound from the aforementioned sphere was heard. In our attempts to view the inside of the sphere as it was at creation, we are interrupted by the glitches, a fleeting view of the past as we are marred by the inevitable passage of time.
Coming up on the final section of the exhibit, we are met with a visually brilliant flash of white and blue projected onto a wall. Eli explained that this image was created using her roommate's brainwaves, recorded using EEG techniques while the roommate recalls a dream about the future. A bowl of water was placed next to her roommate during sleep, and then frozen. The various alpha and beta waves are then assigned to different colors and then projected with LEDs through the frozen ice in order to capture the image. We can see the fringes of these LEDs around the edge of the image.
I found this demonstration somewhat thematically related to an artwork I discussed in my blog from week 2, in which Nathan Selikoff visualized sound through plotting its frequency components on a clock. This idea of being able to display non-visual elements by assigning them some visual representation scheme is fascinating to me, and I thought it was used to excellent effect in Eli's show.
I found this exhibit to be incredibly fascinating for its use of both technologies such as EEG, as well as its awareness and attentiveness to present-day issues (such as global warming) in order to metaphorically capture different periods of time. Using photography, we can capture still representations of a "frozen" point in time (Pun intended!). Through the phenomenon of ice melting, we demonstrate the fleeting nature of the present as well as our inevitable need to let go of the past, with consideration given to the types of environmental change happening around us right now. And finally, by measuring our brainwaves, we can achieve a visual depiction of memories representing our future dreams, hopes, and desires. This was a wonderfully inspiring exhibit, and would love to thank Eli and the DESMA department for hosting it!
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| The three cryo sculptures |
The exhibition could be split into three distinct areas, symbolizing the past, present, and future.
The first area consisted of projections of the three slowly rotating ice spheres, termed "cryo sculptures". As described by Eli, these animations were created by meticulously taking images of the spheres from all different angles and meshing them together to create a 3D model. The images were taken shortly after freezing them, effectively capturing the ice spheres as they were in the "past," right after their creation.
Moving onto the second part of the exhibition, we see the ice spheres themselves, suspended from the ceiling by long ropes. As time progresses the spheres begin melting, dripping into containers placed directly underneath each sphere. To add to the visceral perception of time moving forward, a microphone was used to capture the dripping noise of one of the spheres as the drops of water hit a pan. These sounds were then amplified and played throughout the entire room, giving off an almost ominous feeling as we walked through the exhibit.
In the event description, Eli describes this process as the sculptures releasing "their entropic potential into virtual and material memory." The process served to capture the idea that despite our desires to hold onto our memories in the present, we must inevitably release them, or let them go, in order to move into the future and form new memories. In other words, the entropic behavior of the spheres as the thermal energy excites the ice turning it into water symbolizes the process of letting go. I found this metaphor to be particularly elegant and really helped me to engage in the meaning behind the exhibit. Eli explained her inspiration behind this by noting that nowadays, we hear all about global warming and its rampant environmental effects on Earth's polar regions.
The final component of this "present" section of the exhibit was a virtual reality demo. Using the provided VR goggles, we were able to get a perspective from inside one of the ice spheres. An interesting effect applied to the view was a visual glitch that occurred every time a dripping sound from the aforementioned sphere was heard. In our attempts to view the inside of the sphere as it was at creation, we are interrupted by the glitches, a fleeting view of the past as we are marred by the inevitable passage of time.
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| A somewhat blurry photo of me putting the VR goggles on |
Coming up on the final section of the exhibit, we are met with a visually brilliant flash of white and blue projected onto a wall. Eli explained that this image was created using her roommate's brainwaves, recorded using EEG techniques while the roommate recalls a dream about the future. A bowl of water was placed next to her roommate during sleep, and then frozen. The various alpha and beta waves are then assigned to different colors and then projected with LEDs through the frozen ice in order to capture the image. We can see the fringes of these LEDs around the edge of the image.
 |
| A representation of the "future," captured using a color-coded representation of EEG brainwaves projected through a disc of ice |
I found this demonstration somewhat thematically related to an artwork I discussed in my blog from week 2, in which Nathan Selikoff visualized sound through plotting its frequency components on a clock. This idea of being able to display non-visual elements by assigning them some visual representation scheme is fascinating to me, and I thought it was used to excellent effect in Eli's show.
I found this exhibit to be incredibly fascinating for its use of both technologies such as EEG, as well as its awareness and attentiveness to present-day issues (such as global warming) in order to metaphorically capture different periods of time. Using photography, we can capture still representations of a "frozen" point in time (Pun intended!). Through the phenomenon of ice melting, we demonstrate the fleeting nature of the present as well as our inevitable need to let go of the past, with consideration given to the types of environmental change happening around us right now. And finally, by measuring our brainwaves, we can achieve a visual depiction of memories representing our future dreams, hopes, and desires. This was a wonderfully inspiring exhibit, and would love to thank Eli and the DESMA department for hosting it!
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