Today after a brief discussion of the Ocean of Noise podcast, we are looking at a few of the many media art/art projects with environmental themes, especially projects that involve companion species (oddkin) in some way, or resonate with Donna Haraway’s idea of string figures.
Please follow the links, watch the videos, click through the images. Treat this like a one hour twenty minute visit to art gallery, scroll down to see all the links, spend time with the things that interest you more, skim over the things that interest you least.
Oceans of Noise podcast
Episode 1 – notice the three part structure of the first episode
- Intro beginning -> minute 3:25 Chris Watson introduces himself and the issues he will raise in the podcast
- Segue ~3:25->~4:35 Collage of voices ~ minute
- Part 1 ~ 4:35 -> ~12:50 scientific information about sound and hearing systems in air and in water, delivered in major interview with Lucille Chapuis
- Segue to part 2, music, VO, whale sound
- Part 2 ~13 -> ~23 interview with Asha deVoss,
- story about her introduction to working with whales
- story about blue whale poop -> oxygen
- Part 3 ~23-> ~32:30 final interview with Chris Clark on whale’s mapping the ocean and their social networks
- Outro ~32:30-> end summary “Man made noise pollution is having a significant impact on marine life” and next episode preview.
This structure is very similar to the three act structure of a play or movie. The structure helps keep people’s attention. The intro gives an overview and context. The voice collage perks interest. The hard science is in act one, when we are least tired. Part 2 rewards our attention to the more complicated science with engaging stories. Like a play or movie there is a climax – here the poop story towards the end of act 2. Part three wraps everything up and combines scientific information and story-telling.
Things to think about:
- How can complicated scientific information be best encapsulated in media?
- Can the cycle from whale poop to the oxygen you breathe be considered a string figure?
Episode 2 – introduces acoustic artists Jana Winderen. You can find more of her work if you search for her on You Tube, but below is a 5 minute excerpt
Episide 3 – introduces Markus Reymann and his organization TBA21-Academy, at minute 15 Reymann suggests the art space is crucial for imagining the future of the planet. What do you think?
Companion Species (Oddkin)
Haraway introduces the concept of oddkin, the need for us to make unusual connections with other species as we confront current environmental issues. Look through the projects below. Which of them fit the concept of oddkin, which don’t, why?
- Pigeon Blog Beatriz Da Costa et al
- pigeonblog read the project statement
- Chris Jordan
- Midway Message from the Gyre, look through the images
- Midway Film (3.54), 2017 – WATCH
- Wolfgand Buttress
- The Hive, movie (2 mins), 2015 – WATCH
- Link to the bees
- Will Kavesh, Jesse James Arnold, Natalie Jeremijenko, Feral Robot Dogs (scroll down to relevant section) and movie, 2010
- xClinic (NYU) and Living Architecture Lab (Columbia U.) Amphibious Architecture
Movie
String figures
Haraway uses string figures as an idea or metaphor to think with. She writes, “Relays, string figures, passing patterns back and forth, giving and receiving patterns, holding the unasked for patterns in your hands …” p12
The projects below play with patterns, making patterns, and trying to make new patterns out of something unwanted.
Orquesta de Instrumentos Reciclados de Cateura
- podcast about the orchestra (~23 mins)
- Landfill Harmonic full movie (optional!)
Yao Lu – Landscapes