Salix - In Progress (2004 -)

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Salix began as an observation of branch movement of willows in their natural environment. As I considered branches blowing about, I envisioned ways to capture the essence of the wind. How might this movement be reinterpreted as an art object, be it performance, video, or a three dimensional article?

The installation was over two years in the making and involved five departments: engineering, physics, music, horticulture and art. Initially, in search of a way to implant technology into the branches of willows and turn the data to a solid form, Salix turned into a discovery of new software applications and a realization the process of research is an integral part of the art making process. The most recent exhibition of Salix featured two years of software studies, illustrations, five willows responding to the audience, one willow in the outside environment that brought numerical data via audio feed into the gallery, and another willow outside the gallery which brought live video feed to the indoor environment.

Salix/Synthetic Soul is undergoing a transformation. The next incarnation will feature greater use of the software Max/MSP. Integrating accelerometers into the branches of living trees will allow the willows to access internet databases and fetch either random words, or certain web sites. Using the speech system on the macintosh, I will be able to create a series of willows that can "speak" words to not only each other, but to the gallery audience. Synthetic Soul demonstrates how numerical data is spoken by the macintosh computers using Max/MSP and accelerometers.

Salix is slated to show in Ljubljana, Slovenia (2008) in conjunction with the Eastern European Electronics Symposium currently being developed by the Art group, Brida.