M.A.S.S.I.V.E. (Make-shift Anthropocene Symbiosis Station...)
M.A.S.S.I.V.E. (Make-shift Anthropocene Symbiosis Station and Interface for Vibrant Exchange)
City of Kelowna
Artist in residence
Kelowna, BC
January – November, 2024
Press
Kelowna Now (1, 2)
Kelowna10 (video)
City of Kelowna
Artist in residence
Kelowna, BC
January – November, 2024
Press
Kelowna Now (1, 2)
Kelowna10 (video)
M.A.S.S.I.V.E. is a temporary, mobile sound installation. Found in Kelowna parks throughout fall 2024, it focused on ways that humans and nonhumans 'interface.'
The installation’s functions were small in spite of its lofty title. Installed in parks, it let visitors generate modified sounds for plants. Some installs had visitors DJ for plants via a boombox, selecting CDs and cassette tapes to play. And later installs had visitors speaking to plants over two-way radios. Daisy-chained guitar pedals isolated the audio output to 355–500hz. This distorted the sound to a range known to encourage plant growth. A speaker, mounted to a monitor arm on a tripod, broadcast the noise. Flanked by traffic cones, its articulated aluminum body and tidy cables gave off the look of some scientific technology. Instances had it directed at a mature maple tree, a young cottonwood, a patch of yarrow, and an Oregon grape bush.
The artist was on site to converse with visitors from an outfitted utility trailer, canopied by a room divider. It also served as an off-grid solar power station and reading library. Solar panels recharged the sound sculpture's batteries, and from a trailer side-compartment labelled "Seed library," texts extended the the project's intent. Curated from the artist's shelf, books covered nature/culture, art, and climate. Scattered in the pages of each text were plants seeds, each native to the Okanagan. With and without knowing, readers sowed yarrow, sedges, and wildflower seeds.
The trailer's larger footprint— compared to the sound component— pointed to the project's hubris, even contrasting its eco-optimism. Like its ambitious title, the trailer’s relative size questioned if the supports outweighed the gestures. Energy, material, space, labour, knowledge, and the artists himself all connected to form a flawed, but well-meaning, support system.
— Project statement
The installation’s functions were small in spite of its lofty title. Installed in parks, it let visitors generate modified sounds for plants. Some installs had visitors DJ for plants via a boombox, selecting CDs and cassette tapes to play. And later installs had visitors speaking to plants over two-way radios. Daisy-chained guitar pedals isolated the audio output to 355–500hz. This distorted the sound to a range known to encourage plant growth. A speaker, mounted to a monitor arm on a tripod, broadcast the noise. Flanked by traffic cones, its articulated aluminum body and tidy cables gave off the look of some scientific technology. Instances had it directed at a mature maple tree, a young cottonwood, a patch of yarrow, and an Oregon grape bush.
The artist was on site to converse with visitors from an outfitted utility trailer, canopied by a room divider. It also served as an off-grid solar power station and reading library. Solar panels recharged the sound sculpture's batteries, and from a trailer side-compartment labelled "Seed library," texts extended the the project's intent. Curated from the artist's shelf, books covered nature/culture, art, and climate. Scattered in the pages of each text were plants seeds, each native to the Okanagan. With and without knowing, readers sowed yarrow, sedges, and wildflower seeds.
The trailer's larger footprint— compared to the sound component— pointed to the project's hubris, even contrasting its eco-optimism. Like its ambitious title, the trailer’s relative size questioned if the supports outweighed the gestures. Energy, material, space, labour, knowledge, and the artists himself all connected to form a flawed, but well-meaning, support system.
— Project statement
2024
Speaker, Motorola 2-way radio, guitar pedals and buckstep, Makita 18v 4ah battery, articulated monitor arm, satellite tripod, aluminum and tin casing, plastic basin, notebook, ink, traffic cone
55 x 16 x 16 inches
Seed Library (detail)
2024
Books, Motorola 2-way radio, native plant seeds, folding camp chairs, plastic basins, notebook, ink, traffic cones
Dimensions variable
M.A.S.S.I.V.E. Power Station
2024
U-built trailer, room divider, 5V solar panels and charge controller, electrical wiring, 12V RV battery, modified Makita battery charger, 18V Makita batteries, yarrow, planters, Husky storage tote, stool, traffic cones, reflective banner, Nalgene bottle, sound equipment, spray paint, wood, aluminum, plastic bins
Dimensions variable
Reading List
- Gibson, William. Neuromancer. 1984. New York, New York, Berkley, 2018.
- Haraway, Donna J..“A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century,” Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature, Routledge, New York, 1991. p. 149-181.
- Krenak, Ailton. Ideas to Postpone the End of the World. Translated by Anthony Doyle, House of Anansi Press Inc, 2020.
- Wilk, Elvia. “Is Ornamenting Solar Panels a Crime?” E-Flux, 2018. https://www.e-flux.com/architecture/positions/191258/is-ornamenting-solar-panels-a-crime/.
- Wakkary, Ron L.. Things we could design: For more than human-centered worlds. MIT Press. 2021.
- Shelley, Mary W.. Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus : the 1818 Text. Oxford University Press, New York. 1998.
- Butler, Octavia. A Few Rules for Predicting the Future. 2000. Chronicle Books, 2024, https://app.kortext.com/borrow/2525065.
- Loveless, Natalie. How to Make Art at the End of the World: A Manifesto for Research-Creation. Duke University Press, 2019, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1220kts.