Encounters
of a Domestic Nature
is an interactive experience for crickets and humans.
Domestic house crickets live in a protected bubble, which provides them food,
water, warmth and entertainment. The video nature scenery projected onto their
sphere is activated by their chirping sounds. When humans are nearby, their video
image is captured, miniaturized and projected into the landscape visible to the
crickets. The small scene, including our images is reprojected as a large live
scene so we see ourselves and the crickets in a movie together at a similar
scale. We are allowed to enter into the piece and interact in a way that I hope
offers us a different perspective on an insect that we do not often care about.
I hope that we also ask questions about what domestic crickets want: Do they
want to see humans in their world? Do they want see videos of nature? Do we?
Perhaps we share more in common with the House Cricket than we might want to
admit.
This project premiered in Lüedenscheid, Germany
at LichtRouten 2013,
an International Forum of Light in Art and Design. September
27 – 6 October 2013. Artistic directors: Bettina Pelz
and Tom Groll. The theme was "The Art of Projection" as
the citywide installations took place throughout areas of
urban redevelopment.
Artists in the show: Jürgen Albrecht, Refik Anadol, Atsara, Catherine Berndt, Cuppetelli + Mendoza,
Christoph Girardet, Hartung + Trenz, Joseph O. Homes, Dieter Kiessling, Jakob
Mattner, László Moholy-Nagy, Klaus Obermaier, Rainer
Plum, Quayola, Diana Ramaekers, Nicolas Schöffer, Robert Sochacki, Max Sudhues
and Amy Youngs.
Thanks to the LichtRouten Lüedenscheid directors,
technicians and staff for their support and assistance with
my project. Thanks to the Ohio State University faculty research
enhancement grant for additional support to help create this
new work. |