Natasha Priddle
Metaphors for the Unknown
'Metaphors for the Unknown' engages with concerns of socio-environmental relations as critical provocations for contemporary art. The project contributes to the contemporary vision of art/environmentalism, following artists such as Natalie Jerimenjenko, Herman Kolgen and Deborah Robinson. Like these artists, 'Metaphors for the Unknown' is a multi-disciplined research project, which targets different fields of experiential ecology; psycho-acoustics, gestalt and cognitive metaphor, to influence corporeal experience, and to explore the fluidity of our constructed architectures of knowledge.
Two installations, one inside the gallery, the other out-side its glass doors, recognise the cultural divide between human and environmental domains. The works address two questions: can sound be harnessed as an organ of environmental bio-acoustics - relay environmental experiences to us? Can creative installations help modern culture engage with the environment on a daily basis? Metaphors for the Unknown presents a technological series, fledgling prototypes, which are motivated to interpret the local climate.
Inside the gallery space, eight suspended speakers present eight simultaneous recordings from contact microphones. The sounds are the captured sensations of wind movement as experienced by the three-dimensional form of the host tree outside. These sounds share a space with two drawings, detailing some of the theoretical foundations of the three technological works, they also serve as a conceptual link between the two installation realms.
Outside, a pair of sound sculptures measure ultraviolet light and soil moisture in real time; these data translations are enacted upon musical instruments. Vibration becomes a liminal concept permeating each of the works. It is represented in the raw transduction of electricity through conductive materials, through the abstraction of data into sound using vibration motors, through the recording of wind vibration, and the vibration of graphite lines illustrating form and conceptual language on paper.
(These works represent a year of self-education in Arduino technology: electrical circuitry, schematics, fine soldering, computer coding and technological problem solving, new skills on route to further conceptual development.)