#sonic garden

[shadowsfascination]

An early piece for the Sonic Garden, organized by @shadowxamyweek! Two of my favorite things in life are Sonic the Hedgehog and plants, so how could I resist?

I just got back from a trip to the States, and it's no surprise my main source of inspiration here was the South West <3 Read more about the plants under the cut > >

The cactus is called Opuntia, commonly known as "Prickly Pear". While they do bloom, I don't know if they bloom like this. I just really wanted to draw pretty orange flowers XD Not only do they bloom, they bear fruits! The one in the background is a Saguaro cactus. Some of them grow pretty tall. They really give you that classic desert feeling. Love it!

[stormingchaosheartcontrol]

Here’s my second piece for Sonic Garden @shadowxamyweek! Yes, I did two because why not?

Decided to step out of my comfort zone by drawing a Sonic character I don’t normally draw, as well as picking a flower many may not know a whole lot of information about. So, I figured who better to draw than Rouge with a hibiscus tucked behind her ear? A decision I’m glad I made because I absolutely enjoyed creating this and love the final product!

I’ll also quickly dive behind the scenes and say I wanted this to have a video game-esque feel. Hence the character window, dialogue box and selection arrow that are often seen and used in games. I even made Rouge’s hand, wings, ears and a bit of the hibiscus poke out and onto different areas to help give the artwork a sense of depth.

I’d also pick either SA2B’s or Sonic Prime’s VA to voice Rouge, if this was part of an actual STH game.

*Ayurveda is a system of traditional medicine native to India. The hibiscus flower is used in Ayurveda to help promote healthy hair growth.

[stormingchaosheartcontrol]

Here’s my short written piece for Sonic Garden @shadowxamyweek!

Shadow, Amy and mint.

Did you know Mentha is the scientific name for mint? Native to Australia, North America, Southern Africa and Eurasia. Mint has even naturalized in many places and is widely distributed throughout temperate areas of the world.

Mint also contains vitamin A and C, manganese, calcium, folate and iron. Hence why Amy brings her personal mint tea recipe, when knowing she’ll be away from home for a while. Plus her and Shadow often enjoy a cup of mint tea together while continuing to learn about mints many nutrients and health benefits.

Fun fact: One way to identify a mint plant is by their square stems and aromatic leaves - that are a dark green color, small and pointed with slightly notched margins.

*-*-*-*

Side note: This was originally going to be either Shadow or Amy with the mint plant. But that all changed when learning about what nutrients and health benefits mint has. So, I figured why not have both? That way it’ll make a more interesting concept instead of having one or the other.

[listeninggarden]

First visit of the ‘Drama Garden’, KASK, winter 2020.

Location chosen for the listening garden to be installed in March 2021.

[listeninggarden]

RESIDENCY PROPOSAL: BIO-ACOUSTIC LANDSCAPES AND RUINS

This project is a hypothesis for the future, a speculation.

We imagine a bio-acoustic landscape taking the shapes of a sonic garden where interconnected plants would allow the visitors to interact with their environment.

Cables mingling with the roots of semi-organic, semi-machine specimens would allow an inter-species dialogue in a cyberspace.

Marking the ground, or erected as ornamental motifs, the imprints of the passage of agricultural vehicles are reproduced in plaster.

These gigantic, sedimentary tire traces, would become the visible witnesses of centuries long soil abuse. Their aesthetics reminds the visitors of ruins or ancient art productions, as they spring from the ground of this garden made up of layers of an unbalanced past, oscillating between an art installation and an Eden.

In order to allow sonic interactions to be generated by touch, functional technological pieces (arduinos, humidity sensors, accelerometers, acidity sensors ...) are widespread on the grass of this laboratory-garden where interactive and musical plants intertwine with interconnected medical electrodes.

Memory capsules merge together with wild and semi-exotic plants whose sound identities can finally be heard: a meditative soundscape of the living in active mutation, like a synthetic breath. Various frequencies of organic bodies emanate from clusters of electrical wires, copper and plastic in visible strata.

Plants take roots in the ruins of cultural objects that have become obsolete (left behind ornaments, logos, sculptures of contemporary art).

Particles of color that have no place in this abandoned landscape as well as inorganic forms cover the ground like carcasses of the Human era.

This project is an archeology of a potential future between ecological drama and art exhibition.

Fossils, sediment imprints, serial patterns on which nature would have taken over: an imaginary island, a digital paradise, a white cube ruin, an installation garden .

By creating a sonic dialogue between plants and humans, our connection to nature is strengthened as our awareness is developed: the human hand gently touches the leaves of living plants so that sound is produced and heard, amplified in space.

An exchange of energy is transmitted from the human body to the roots of plants and vice-versa. An invisible, careful and poetic communication is then organized between the two species.

Primarily, it is a physical experience. Sound vibrations are felt throughout the body of the person interacting with connected plants, thanks to the flow of electricity lead to a computer program that modulates the sound.

Our human sensitivity is directly attuned to the behavior of the plant when we change the pace and pressure of our touch. The plant becomes a sonic instrument. Our consciousness opens and our perception of the living elements is therefore mutated.

Indeed, after such an experience, our perception of the organic world is forever changed. We are rethinking our positioning towards non-human beings, as well as our impact on the living. A form of respect emerges from this exchange and likewise, a switch of perspective is taking place.

How to decolonize nature? How to readjust our relationship with this nature-culture?

Indeed, the definition of nature is constantly fluctuating. It seems, however, that it systematically excludes us as humans.

We are therefore entitled to wonder whether our impact and human activity have drastically transformed the chemistry of the planet (soils, living things, the atmosphere, etc.), and has therefore changed its deep condition permanently.

Is it still possible to speak of nature without humans? Indeed, it is now inconceivable to return to the original state of nature. This is not a statement of failure but a real willingness to ask the right questions when facing the current ecological crisis.

The importance of respecting our ecosystem is essential and this installation may be the start for a reflection. It is crucial to imagine an imminent repositioning and to consider a slowdown in our soil exploitation (fundament of the colonization of nature) in order to project humankind into a less dystopian future.

The artistic practice is a path towards this overcoming, this well needed change of focus (currently and dangerously human-centered): we must (re)start to look at nature, to observing it with respect and to listen to it.

In short, it is necessary to interact more poetically with our environment and to wonder if it is possible to continue to create and evolve by collaborating more with nature and listening more to our planet.

Inspired by the concept of English gardens, we want to create a fiction of anticipation in which altered vegetation has resumed its rights on the traces of human activity (fragments, rocks, sediments, ruins).

These particles from the past will be architectural elements mixed with plaster reproductions of vehicle imprints: as for example, a forced start in the mud, a turn of a tractor on the plowing of a field, the passage of a construction machine imprinted in the ground.

We will turn these fossils drawings taken from the human landscape into ornamental elements and patterns made with pigmented plaster.

This component of the installation is above all a sculptural work which will allows us to question our relationship to displacement, and what is left as information in the soil for a future archeology.

The idea is to focus on plastic happenings present in our environment, directly related to drawing, painting and printing. An analysis of the passages and gestures marking the earth.

The installation will create a mental space, a physical experience opposing and then associating, both an introspective vision and a speculative vision.

The possibility of activating the installation of the sonic garden with an interactive performance including the audience may be organized as well, repeatedly over the period of the residency (cf. the PLUIES project by Pauline Mikó).

Technically, this progressive installation would be realized throughout the residency, in several research segments (may the be conceptual and technical) in the form of a series of written essays and try-outs in space.

The sculptures will be produced on site by Hugues Loinard. As for the technological part, it will be developed during the residency by Pauline Mikó (in possible collaboration with certain actors of the residency’s network and other scientific and technological institutions that may be linked to the organization).

The idea of an active research laboratory is essential in this project. Accidents, discoveries and experimentations are key elements in our collaborative approach.

Our research sits where art and technology align for a critical analysis of the Anthropocene.

Environmental issues and the influence of human activity on our planet are the primal elements questioned in our collective practice.

On an other level, we hope to be able to take advantage of the residency’s network through the intervention of specialists, artists, curators, researchers, who will allow us to deepen our approach and open up new lines of reflection. In order to enrich our research, we have already started to contact academics in geology and geo-archeology in order to speculate more precisely on the possible aspects of a world formerly scarified by human activities then suddenly returned to itself (in a vision post-anthropocenical of the future).

Finally, we are considering contacting botanical, agriculture and stratigraphy specialists, to base our work on real data and active research on the subject.

We hope to have aroused your curiosity and we thank you in advance for your time and interest.

We remain available for any further informations regarding our proposal,

Pauline Mikó and Hugues Loinard,

Brussels, April 2020.

[listeninggarden]

Makey Makey device.

[listeninggarden]

experimentale écoute neuve meditation échange

[listeninggarden]

environnement performance experience