By Luke Clark | Project Co-Director
Global Giving Report, May 2016
Our May report!
We are looking forward to the upcoming exhibition, taking place at University College Florida (UCF) running from August 1st until September 2nd, 2016. Once the Opening Date has been finalized, we will send out a “Save the Date”.
As outlined in our previous report, we have been focusing our energy on establishing potential performance(s) to take place at the opening (or other occasions during the exhibition).
As part of this effort, we are keen to collaborate with different departments at UCF. This approach supports our desire for the Progeny Installation to have educational benefits for those that interact with it.
We have established contact with the UCF music department to work on a potential collaboration. Students will learn how to use some new and exciting contact microphone technology that we are installing inside Progeny called Mogees. Mogees are gestural contact microphones, meaning that gestures such as scratches, taps, strikes, or hits can be assigned to trigger audio samples. There is a link at the end of this report if you are interested in learning more about this technology.
We are interested in exploring how students will use this technology to create a performance within the Progeny installation. We will be keen to understand the different possibilities this new technology brings to Progeny, both as an installation and for future performances.
We are also working with the UCF department of architecture. The students will be learning about the construction of Progeny, environmental considerations for creating new buildings, learning about how to develop strong conceptual ideas when designing a piece of architecture and helping with the installation of Progeny.
In June, we plan to undertake a new fundraiser to generate funds towards the upcoming Progeny Exhibition taking place at UCF.
In our quest to find additional venues for the Progeny Installation, we have been in regular contact with Anastasia Cole Plakias, co founder of Brooklyn Grange Rooftop Farm and one of the producers of Honey Fest. We are exploring the possibility of the Progeny exhibition, taking place in New York during the week of Honey fest, a weeklong, citywide festival celebrating the honeybee.
We are both grateful for the support each donor has given to our project, enabling us to produce the work and to undertake the first exhibition and program of education and events at Atlantic Centre for the Arts. We are also very grateful to those who continue to contribute regularly. All funds invested into Progeny have gone towards developing Progeny.
We believe our unique sound installation is an inspiring space for public interaction, artistic collaboration and education.
We would be very grateful if you can let others know about our work and/or if you are able to contribute in any way.
Thank you for your continued support.
We wish you our very best,
Luke and Bryce
The Progeny Project
Progeny is an indoor interactive architectural sound installation modeled after a Langstroth beehive. The artists/curators have figuratively become beekeepers, transporting the structure measuring 24 x 24 x 9 ft on a flatbed truck. Through public engagement, performance and collaboration an opportunity is presented for an audience to evolve, learn, adapt and interact.
The project is the result of three years of research and partnership, working in concert with the agricultural community, structural engineers and sound experts.
Progeny is designed whereby every unit is constructed using 4’ x 8’ frames, including walls and flooring. Ten independent walls create nine narrow corridors 24 ft in length. The narrow width of each corridor compels close public interaction. The space above the walls is designed without a joining ceiling. 32 contact microphones under the flooring of the structure pick up the vibrations of people’s footsteps. These, alongside 16 microphones within the walls, transmit sound to 36 speakers throughout the installation.
Emulating the systematic migratory procession beekeepers undertake carrying up to 400 hives on flatbed trucks to temporary locations, this travelling time-based work explores the point at which an artwork is ready for the viewer. Progeny’s journey from one location to another is as much part of the work as when it is assembled for public exhibition. It is neither stationary in its physical or intellectual state, constantly evolving through travel and through the communities it interacts with. This journey is documented by film and online media and forms part of future exhibitions.
In location, Progeny becomes an instrument or a platform for public interaction and artistic collaboration, providing unique opportunities for the audience to experience and engage with the work.
The project includes an education program that encourages children and adults to care for our natural environment, and which also explores the theme of community by using bee society as a comparative model.
Links:
By Luke Aaron Clark | Artist
By Luke Clark | Project Co-Director
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