13 September 2010

soror Nishi's Tree of Trees

Just a short post on Tree of Trees, soror Nishi's newest major installation. One hardly needs to say more than that it's enormous, beautiful, iridescent, magnificent.  Not as enormous as Kolor Fall's builds I discussed previously, but certainly equal in magnificence.  It has a strong "rain forest" sense to it, and indeed there's an area where you can hear water dripping. More than that, however: if you turn ambient sound (and probably the master sound slider) all the way up, you can hear the drone of meditative singing (possibly throat singers of Tuva?). Meditation is I think a core element of Tree of Trees, as signaled by a poster in the landing area.

I only wish that soror had incorporated a few animations into the piece. There are a few sitting poses in one location, but I didn't locate any of interest. A couple of meditation poses or tai chi anims would be very fitting.

Some photos:






2 comments:

  1. Thank you, glad you enjoyed it. The poses idea is good, I will do that in my next build.

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  2. We have no argument, contrary to your second half. You are making my points for me; it is my failing to communicate clearly. You have thought about the issues crucial to the installation and that is the point of artwork - dialogue and discussion.

    Our minds are NOT computers; agreed. Nor are our minds "merely electrostatic discharges between synapses." The point of INPUT, as you remarked, is that "this is the label the machines have for the person running the avatar named "Miso Susanowa" but it is not ME, anymore than the sound of my name is me; these are labels.

    The application of old-world computer metaphors of strict binary/dualistic processes echo the outdated thinking of Man-As-Clockwork-Orange theories that recur throughout history. We know now in computing as well as in biology that there is no sharp demarcation, no "dividing line" that can be applied to organic and cybernetic systems.

    So the final lines in 'code dreams' refer to opposing forces in the same way a taijitu ('yingyang symbol' for you gaijin) expresses opposing forces, which in fact are an illusion and compliment each other to create a larger whole.

    My life in code is a compliment to my life in flesh; neither one is "more real" than the other; merely... angles of view and perspective; only useful metaphors, not "the truth."


    You mention "the codes and dreams ... are in difficult tension; perhaps the point is irony... or ambivalence." The approach/idea/conceit was to show these things as toys of the mind; toys to play with, to think about and dream about, but ultimately only toys; words to describe the wordless. It is the same theme stated by the initial Tripartite Key/Input area, where various labels and facts and characteristics applied to me are only fragmentary labels, not really "me." That a person is more than an assemblage of their facts and figures, in a database or in a casual stranger's eye. For the same reason, all objects in the room are phantom but for the Bed and the Poet (storyteller) - my worldview is subjective and not authoritative to anything but itself.

    "when the codes become the background and not the focus of "code dreams," the work takes off." Beautiful! THIS IS THE ENTIRE POINT of the installation and you found it!!! The scenery, the objects are PROPS. The installation, like the rest of the Artbreaker pieces, is about SOUND. It is also about who i REALLY am, to myself; I HEAR. I make music which I hear in life, in objects and things and the rythmns of life. That is what is most "real" to me in my everyday physical life. The code is definitely supposed to be in the background; both sets of code, biological and computer.


    "you could say that in music, "here's a note, here's another note, here are three at once" ... but you would be wrong. " You see? We are agreeing :) I apologize for stating my thesis in such a muddled way. Reductionist theory would have you break down Beethoven's 'Moonlight Sonata' into quarter-, whole and half-notes, or even further to scratchings of ink on paper. But it would not tell you why it can make you cry, or make you think deeply about the man who composed that music, or what he is saying about the condition of Man everywhere, in every age, at some time in her life. It would not be music.


    Thank you so much for such a thorough and interesting exploration of my world (the other gentle mock in the entire build; it is not so nearly neat as input/processing/output; it's messy, like my mind, like life itself).

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