what*
Trees are antennae.
This is a continuation of the Custom Catastrophe Project that has been developed for the ‘what’ show at Back Lane Studios, located in the Roncesvalles area in Toronto, Ontario, from April 12 to 28th, 2024.
The 3D models used in this installation are accurate, to scale, 3D reproductions of actual dead branches that I have found lying on the ground in High Park (in Toronto, Ontario) after having been scattered about by wind storms. They were modelled in Blender using a Python script I wrote (my first use of both Blender scripting and Python). All of the dates listed in the branches page will lead you to a page that contains the photos, renderings, animations, and online applications (written in Javascript/three.js) that document each of the separate branches. You will also find some notes about the conditions and circumstances surrounding the finding of these branches. This is part of the oracle aspect of this project – where and under what conditions these branches were found, the ‘encounter’, is treated as significant and can be treated as events from which meaning may be obtained or ‘divined’. For example, on the first occasion, December 13, 2023, in the place where I found the first branch for this project, there was a large black squirrel there guarding it. Fortunately, after some negotiation, he said it was ok.. So these are some of the circumstances of the encounter; what position the branch was in, what my state was when I found it, and so on.
High Park Branches
3D models
The collection of all branches used as source material for this project (in the installation software, animations, apps, and descriptions).
the interactive installation
Interactive software (based on Custom Catastrophe): participant’s interactions drive winds in a virtual environment that scatter the branches about eventually coming to rest to form a final image, a final statement. It’s only just the total accumulated activity of the entire universe throughout all of history that has brought us this branch here at this time. These are the final paintings that I am talking about. Your own version generated by nothing more than your mere presence.
*no branches were harmed during the making of this installation