the stratified character of nature

Media: 10.1-channel sound, dibond UV prints, loudspeaker horns, stands

The material for ‘the stratified character of nature’ was captured at the seam between the concrete and cobble stones of New York City and the flora and fauna of its public green space. Pointing up the problematic role of the inherited 19th c. conception of nature as an escape in the service of human leisure introduced by Alfred North Whitehead in the text The Concept of Nature, this work uses sound and image to amplify, magnify, and critique the detrimental effects of this outmoded frame for the lived future of the natural world. Drawing on hyper-real close-ups of the audiovisual scene of public green space and the surrounding city, the multichannel audio and video of the stratified character of nature creates an embodied engagement with issues of noise pollution and climate change.

Presented as part of Seeing Sound, a traveling exhibition curated by Barbara London, with the support of Research Assistant Kristen Clevenson and produced by Independent Curators International (ICI). This exhibition and tour are supported, in part, by Nokia Bell Labs Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) program and with the generous support of ICI’s Board of Trustees and International Forum.