countdown

a slight delay in production this week due to a pretty heavy road accident - fortunately Lucy and I came through relatively unscathed, but my car is still being assessed for repair or write-off status. some idiot ran a red light on dandenong rd and plowed into us.

anyway, i always ensure my production process has certain time flexibilities, usually due to my sculptures having technical components that can be susceptible to glitches in the build phase. this flexibility has allowed for me to absorb a few days off to deal with the crash and stay on track with my sculpture for the 'Experiments on Plant Hybridization' at Dianne Tanzer Gallery.

a quiet saturday in the studio with the soldering iron.

today i completed a counter that will form part of the 'detonation device' in the sculpture. 

the plan is for the counter to form an interactive component in the work. it will be connected (hopefully, my amateur electronic skills are being stretched here) to a sensor that detects a viewer getting close to the work. the conceptual idea is that this detonation device will get closer to arming itself when anyone gets close to it. so, with live plants eliciting an energy that looks as if it is charging a 'bomb', any attempt to disarm the bomb only brings it closer to detonation. the implications or evocations of this idea are open for the viewer to consider.

i've selected some plants too - typical household plants, purchased from a large warehouse retail chain. the plants are little symbols of 'the natural' but really are quite removed from nature. propagated and cultivated via techniques of mass production more aligned to factory production than the natural cycles of life, these plants straddle both natural and cultural worlds.

the plants are pilea cadierei or aluminium plants. they work nicely in name as there is aluminium conductors in the soil of the plants for the sculpture and the foliage of the leaves echoes the patterns of the circuit boards of the electronics. 

electrical successes

there's something very pleasant about weekends at the studio. i think this stems mostly from the fact that my studio is on a university campus and weekends mean that there's no-one around. also, i think i like to work when the rest of the world is not - nights and weekends are always the most productive for me.

i finally resolved the fluctuating voltage meter issue. it came down to rethinking the power connections - in simple terms, i adjusted from a 'connection' focus, to a 'disconnection' focus. this emphasises a break in the circuit rather than a connection. problem solved.

 here the wires touching the aluminium foil connect the circuit and you can see the voltage meter in the background with a positive reading.

 and now here the second hand on the clock has dislodged the copper wiring and caused the circuit to disconnect and the voltage meter drops

the motion of the clock, its circularity of time, causes the fluctuations in the voltage supply. i can now rig the whole thing up (by hiding the clock mechanism) to appear as of the voltage is being read from the plants, which will be wired up with actual voltage running through soil.

 here i have run a 9v charge through the soil of 2 plants, interconnected by insertions of aluminium foil and copper sheets to complete the circuits

 interconnected here with the flashing LED light circuit i built

now that these technical issues have been resolved i can move on to constructing the actual sculptural piece and build the illusion/proposition that energy is being drawn out of the plants themselves and is acting as a detonation trigger for the branch bundle. 

exploding on to the scene

nature as a site for potentially explosive energy has manifested itself rather forcefully in this artwork. i'm rolling with the intuitive drive of this developing twist in my work and letting it run itself toward its self directed logical realisation.

again i'm trying to pursue the construction of a fluctuating voltage meter, using a better clock mechanism this time, but still struggling to get it to operate as i'd like. frankly, it's very frustrating.

i did, however, pick up an alternating flashing LED device to build for myself. the soldering iron came up and the amateur electronic construction began.

the idea here is to build a detonation and explosive device from electronics and plants. the alternating LED display and the fluctuating voltage meter are components of the sculpture that show that the device is 'active' and 'functioning', evoking an impending actualisation of the device. 

i think a simple supporting base of artificial grass will work for the sculpture. it has a way of reinforcing a sense of general artificiality that is evident in the work - a fake bomb - as well as almost fetishising the object, which i like.

as you can see from the last image, i'm working with the idea that live plants will act as the detonation mechanism, and there will be some apparent reading of life signs from the plant (LED displays flashing, hopefully a voltage meter will be 'reading' the plant activity). this will be connected to the bundle of branch sections that appear as if dynamite.