Video poem & music “What flavors here? What scents now …” Nostalgia for the days before … Carelessness, freedom of movement, human warmth, nature … which the Coronavirus deprives us cruelly. This new video-poem by Tamara Laï whose images were filmed in various places and countries (Belgium, China, Scotland, Italy, Netherlands) was finalized in residence at her home in Liège, during the lockdown period. Video and poems: Tamara LAI Music: Caroline BOE
Production : Thalamus Prod. With support of Transcultures & Pépinières européennes de Création
Based on the poem by Pablo Neruda, “Keeping Quiet”, this film is a portrait of my experience from April 23 to 28 2020 during the COVID-19 Pandemic. I shot it entirely by bicycle on an iPhone in my west end Toronto neighborhood. Read by Sylvia Boorstein, with music by Ólafur Arnalds, “Only The Winds.”
Collaborative videos initially planned to be created in shared physical space that have been adapted due to quarantine. These updated micro-films describe the shared experiences of isolation by recording live streamed simultaneous activities performed in the home by 2 friends on either side of the Atlantic. Audio is created from WhatsApp phone chats, and visuals streamed via Zoom, though future work may use different platforms
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Brener and Imara are locked down in London and New York during the corona crisis. Y&I Lockdown was performed simultaneously via online streaming. It highlights the loneliness and confusion of isolation, and also the connectedness of all who are separated in physical space due to the crisis. Audio from a phone chat.
We created 187 cover images in 2020 to reflect how it feels to live through a pandemic. You can see those cover images online, then change the number to see others.
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“As the covid 19 virus sweeps the globe, it is difficult to underestimate the dismay and disarray visited upon us all. In recognition of that worldwide affliction, giraffe.com will offer a new cover image every day, reflecting how it feels to live with a global pandemic. Some of the images are based on A.I. transcriptions of my selfie. I cannot ease the terror, the pain, the chaos. But I can at least offer one artist’s view of what is happening to the human species right now, right here and everywhere. We have abused nature’s gifts to us. Now, perhaps, she is shedding her tears in reply.” Corinne Whitaker 2020
Mediated 2.0 The Air We Breath (working title) Mediated 2.0
The Air We Breath is about our collective environment. Our microbiome, collectively speaking and individually. How our presence in a space, within our shared environments is felt and what we leave behind. With COVID-19 and other potential hazards in our air streams, the concept here is towards visualizing our multi species entanglements, our interactions and our awareness or unawareness of how we impact the nonhuman world. [Still in conceptual phase] the installation can be purely a VR/AR environment, web-based and/or with physical elements that employ haptic sensors within a space along with the mixed reality. The physical elements are soft circuit/soft sculptures. Everything in the environment is visualized in its microscopic forms. From the bacteria and fungi that populate our tissue, hair, exhales, the floors, other organisms in this environment; birds, cats, how our microbes intermingle when we come close to one another, when we touch. In order to make the subjects in the space more ‘clear’ human and other life forms are outlined, however, the biomes spill over and out -they are not confined (as in reality) the outlines here are used as a marker of sorts. Air readings are taken from within the space as well as the surrounding area this installation might take place in. This data is shown in percentages as well as in the virtual space. In some circumstances some of this data will be sonified towards creating a soundscape within the installation. Kinect sensors map visitors in the space to project their microbiome, TouchDesigner will be used for some of these visuals.
In 2012/13/14 I started building large and small scale phytoplankton, fungi and bacteria out of glass and sometimes metal: copper/sterling. In 2013/14 I received grants from the Glass Art Association of Canada and the Ontario Arts Council towards creating the working space to do so, supplies, and time to create sketches in flame-worked and cast glass. The concept being to create macro versions of pollens, fungi, bacteria, dust/dirt, phytoplankton and other particulate found in our airstreams. Using a Vitrigraph kiln arraignment I started building up murrini- glass cane that would create the textural elements. It was amazing to create custom colour palletes, and work in my super small studio similarly to working in a Hot shop (aka glass blowing studio). For the most part this initial stage was successful, however, the kiln and space required to create large renderings was out of my means, and the only available studio is in Brooklyn, NY and I am in Toronto so, I created a foundation that could potentially be utilized at a later date. VR/AR: Since the 90’s I have been fascinated with the concept of Virtual worlds and creating them! The work of Jaron Lanier only added to this. Plus, he coined the term or maybe William Gibson did or? Who knows! It sounded amazing. Add to that my dreams as a small child in the 70’s of cars that had windscreens like televisions (for lack of a better word then) and motorcycles that turned into robotic suits around the rider (think Transformers but in 71/72 and I don’t think that even existed yet!) I have always been a child of SciFi. In 2015/16 I participated in workshops that taught Unity gaming and AR. I believe now that a mixed reality, maybe working with Magic Leap, Holo Lens or similar (like a AR contact lens!) is the way to create the visualizations I am considering.
