Below are a couple of brief videos shot today by a young artist Named Sara Ocklind, who is enrolled in the Masters programme at Art Space and Nature, Edinburgh College of Art. I had to compress the file quickly tonight so its not as good as it was – as delivered to us by Sara. But it gives a nice sense of the project and how Plein Air ‘performs with a tree and its leaves’.
Chris Malcom has been great to work with! He is an incredibly talented musician, sound designer and programmer. He has been in the studio with us almost every Sunday (tree church). Trying things out and working to get the data/sound relationship to track while making sure the layers of sound are clearly separate. He used some initial insight about bass tracks to great effect here. He is of course also responsible for the graphic – trying to get something that would reinforce the experience w/out complicating the perception of sound with data. This is part of the obsession we have linking quantitative and qualitative experience, one reinforcing the sensual understanding and over time hopefully engaging empathic sensibilities. The other validating that experience with a mathematical record of flow, temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide over time. Two separate sensor systems, one for atmosphere the other for the leaf itself. By comparing leaf to atmosphere we begin to get the actual response of the tree to changing environmental conditions. Everything is processed in real time with high grade sensors and proper equation based computer analysis.
The Tent Gallery, ASN, ECA, “Plein Air” clip 1.1 from timothy collins on Vimeo.
The Tent Gallery, ASN, ECA, “Plein Air” clip 2.1 from timothy collins on Vimeo.
You will see two videos of the Plein Air sculptural interface, as installed with a birch, an aspen, a rowan and a Scots pine. In the background are images from work with version 2.0 of the system created for an exhibition at Peacock Visual Arts in Aberdeen, 2010. They provide a nice backdrop. Of the two videos, one has very active response on photosythesis and transpiration. By following the leaf images, you will start to track the various base/chord relationships that differentiate one from the other with photosynthesis on the top in green. The shot with the window open you will see that photosynthesis is very quiet but the transpiration response is incredibly active! The sound here is only as good as the in-camera mic. We will come back in a week or so and get some proper video/sound work done. But this gives a very good overview of what we have been chasing these past years… Thanks Sara for the rapid video response! ; )