Dawning

Dawning
2022
single channel video on custom projection screen, projector, speaker, electronics

“Through our breath, we become the universe, we begin to understand our connections to the universe.”
– Heather Davis

Across the globe living things respond to each new day in a beautiful and endless wave as the sun sweeps over earth. Dawning is an audiovisual celebratory meditation on this daily circadian rhythm of organisms as they respond to their environment and an invitation to gallery visitors to join in.

Dawning is composed of field recordings that are modulated in real time by recorded sensor data of atmospheric exchange in the forest: light, CO2, airborne particulate levels, air temperature and humidity from umbrella research project Foresta-Inclusive. These data feeds alter the visual and sonic fabric of the field recordings, rendering the invisible environmental conditions of the forest as audible and visible elements of the dawn chorus.

The artwork is projected onto an overhead screen punctuated by cut-outs in the pattern of tree canopies, dappling light onto the floor as in the forest. Visitors are invited to recline under the screen, immersing themselves in the projection, and to join in the dawn chorus vocally through the microphone provided.

My hope is that Dawning provides a means of reconnecting to, and seeing ourselves within, a microcosm of our deeply interconnected collective global biosphere.

Credits:

Special thanks to the Rossi family: Leilia, Paulo and Felipe, and Heloisa Oliveira for film location assistance.
Generously commissioned by Jane Tingley. Development space through SLOlab. Live envirographic data made available through her project Foresta inclusive, funding by: Environments of Change Partnership Grant, University of Waterloo. ON. CA.