Common_Thread
WHAT:
Common Thread’ presents slow, mysterious passages through thickly forested landscapes, comprised solely of silver-grey dots and lines; whilst effected sounds of those forests commingle with the distant voices of a myriad species. Set within those uncanny landscapes, indistinct 3D forms enigmatically appear and disappear, intimating an extraordinary complexity. The work reflects upon how might we re-imagine conceptions of colonised landscapes in ways that could motivate settler cultures to respect their infinite complexities.
The work arose from my ongoing residency at Samford Ecological Research Facility (SERF) in Queensland, Australia – on Yuggera, Jinibara, Kabi Kabi & Waka Waka Country - protecting a remnant block of forest isolated within a patchwork quilt of surrounding farmed land, typifying the perilously fragmented, disconnected state of Australia’s habitats. It is a place active with scientific research of all kinds, much of which aims for better ecological futures – by seeking to predict more 'efficient' forms of conservation and production.
Common Thread, is based upon 3D-laser scanned ‘Point Cloud’ imagery of walks through that forest, using a technology that at first glance might appear to capture its complexity. But ‘Nature_Cultures’ ( a synthesis of nature and culture that recognises their inseparability) cannot be captured by digital scans. SERF, as a place rich in Indigenous, social, cultural/scientific histories, cannot be represented solely by the terse point cloud dots of digital scanning. Much is lost in such ‘ultra-accurate’ representations - that say little to of the spirit and meaning of that place. This loss parallels the lack of understanding of place and Country that we, the recent settlers of Australia’s unceded Indigenous land demonstrate – underscoring our profound misunderstandings of how to live well within such complexities
Australia: unceded lands of the oldest continuous culture on earth - a culture in which everyone has personal responsibility to everything - where everyone knows their relationship to trees, rocks, sky, people, animals, plants, water.. How little of this its recent settlers understand - about how to live well within such complexity. And so, Australia’s (stolen) lands have been routinely devastated.
My on-site research examined the cultural meanings of such conservation reserves within rapidly urbanising landscapes, asking how we might draw upon them to imagine, seek and image the very different futures we now need to develop together.
WHERE:
1: ‘Possibles', ISEA 2022 (27th International Symposium of Electronic Art), Recinte Modernista de Sant Pau, Carrer de Sant Antoni Maria Claret, 167, Barcelona, Spain, June 9-30, 2022 curated by Vicente Matallana from the '.NewArt { foundation;}'
https://isea2022.isea-international.org/event/artwork-common-thread/
2: 'Digital Jewels of the .NewArt { collection;}. Part Two', Novtec festival in association with Alliance Française, Nov 9-24 2022, Lima, Perú.
https://www.aflima.org.pe/artes-visuales/novtec-exposiciones/#/
3: ‘THE NEWART { COLLECTION;} AT V2_’, V2_Lab For The Unstable Media, Eendrachtsstraat 10, Rotterdam, Netherlands, Feb 9th - March 5th 2023, curated by Florian Weigl.
4. Hiperobjetos - Sala Picasso, Círculo de Bellas Artes de Madrid, Madrid, 11th Sept - 17th November 2024, Curated by Eloy Martínez de la Pera & Jaime de los Ríos.
The work has also been acquired for the BEEP, NewArt { collection;}, Spanish/Catalan Media Art Collection.
WHO:
Dr. Dmitry Bratanov, Senior Research Engineer (RPAS and Automation), Research Engineering Facility, QUT
PARTNERS:
SERF (Samford Environmental Research Facility), Lorrelle Allen + Site Technician Marcus Yates
QUT Centre for the Environment
Prof. Jennifer Firn (Ecological Science/Plant Biology)
Visual data set collected and processed to registered point cloud by Dr. Dmitry Bratanov and Gavin Broadbent, Research Engineering Facility, Office of Research Infrastructure, QUT, Brisbane, Australia.
Audio sources: Australian Acoustic Observatory: A Network to Monitor Biodiversity Project Team, with funding from the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council (LE170100033) (2018). Brisbane, QLD: QUT [www.acousticobservatory.org]. Data is licensed under the CC BY 4 Licence.
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body