Lively matter, 2022

HD single channel video

29 minutes

 

This work was developed on Turrbal Country

 

Location: Liverpool Street Gallery

 

 

‘Weird loops are systems that wrap back on themselves, where all parts are interrelated and embedded in an emergent whole.’ –Jonathon Turnbull, Weird (2021)
 

Lively matter is a 29-minute looped moving image that documents the construction, deconstruction and adaptation of 120 assemblages composed of everyday objects and materials across 24 cycles.  The crude evolution of each object’s assembly is accompanied by an assortment of over 160 sounds foraged from home and work to comprise the film’s score, providing the context of place, environment, belonging and adaptation. Modelled on adaptive resilience cycles proposed by ecologist C.S. ‘Buzz’ Holling (1973), this interdisciplinary exploration combines resilience theory with contemporary creative process to offer a real-time model of an ecological process while elevating the messy, complicated and beautiful connections between nature and culture. The resulting film reflects the power of novelty, innovation and memory evoking resilience during a period of unprecedented disturbance and instability.