Recent Work: Terra Incognita: Mapping The Topograpy of Sleep
"Terra Incognita: Mapping The Topography Of Sleep" (8/26/2011 11:13:00 PM through 8/27/2011 6:13:30 AM), draws together the fields of art and cartography to explore the largely uncharted terrain of sleep through the art and science of mapmaking. This project is an interdisciplinary collaboration between a visual artist and an information technology specialist. Collaborator: Christopher Mixon.
Upon receiving the surface renderings, I followed the conventions of map making to create a topographic map and an elevation map to the scale of the bed. The final dimensions are approximately 78 X 38 inches. This collaborative project is continuing. It has expanded to include advanced technology and a collaborative team including Christopher Mixon, Jeffrey Caudhill and Luke Marzen.
"Terra Incognita: Mapping The Topography Of Sleep" (8/26/2011 11:13:00 PM through 8/27/2011 6:13:30 AM), draws together the fields of art and cartography to explore the largely uncharted terrain of sleep through the art and science of mapmaking. This project is an interdisciplinary collaboration between a visual artist and an information technology specialist. Collaborator: Christopher Mixon.
Terra Incognita: Mapping The Topography of Sleep
This project is a life-size map of the bed I slept in. This project draws together the fields of art and cartography such that topographic and elevation maps were made from measurements gathered from the surface of my bed after a night of sleep. I created a grid with threads and straight pins and subsequently, took 2,736 measurements to comprise the raw data that eventually led to a computer rendering in ARC GIS, a geographic information system, made by collaborator Christopher Mixon. GIS is the merging of cartography, statistical analysis, and database technology.
Suspension
Suspension was made while sleeping in a head-to-foot spandex body suit that is enhanced with compressed charcoal fragments to record body movement. I slept on a 72 X 38 inch piece of Stonehenge paper mounted on plywood. When I awoke, the charcoal had marked my movement while I slept. I document my location while shifting from wakefulness into the unconscious state of sleep.
The body suit is enhanced with hundreds of compressed charcoal fragments, each approximately 1/4 inch in diameter. The charcoal fragments tracked body movement while I slept.
Graphite on Stonehenge, 2012 25 X 37.5 inches.
Graphite on Stonehenge, 2012 25 X 37.5 inches.
Verification Series
What is the location of Self during sleep? This series attempts to answer this question. The "Location Verification Series: Pillow Drawings" represents life size graphite drawings on paper (each 25 X 37.5 in.) of a pillow that has yielded to a night of sleep over seven chronological nights. I began each drawing upon awakening and concluded when it was time to sleep again--taking on average approximately 12 hours of drawing for each pillow. This challenging process expanded to include 15 pillow drawings in total. As author, I dissolved into the process thus serving art. In an attempt to verify location of Self during sleep, I discovered the diminishing of significance of self in the process of making art.
Title: Day Scraps (after Freud). Series of 30. Media: Spray paint and charcoal on Stonehenge paper. Dimensions: Each framed 36" X 26" Image: The Day Scraps series on exhibition in "Intractable" a solo exhibition curated by Paula Katz at The Eleanor Prest Reese, Robert B. Berkshire and Dorit & Gerald Paul galleries at Herron School of Art and Design. The title is derived from neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) who referred to dreams as "day scraps."
Title: Day Scraps (after Freud). Series of 30. Media: Spray paint and charcoal on Stonehenge paper. Dimensions: Each framed 36" X 26"
Title: Day Scraps (after Freud). Series of 30. Media: Spray paint and charcoal on Stonehenge paper. Dimensions: Each framed 36" X 26" Image: The Day Scraps series on exhibition in "Intractable" a solo exhibition curated by Paula Katz at The Eleanor Prest Reese, Robert B. Berkshire and Dorit & Gerald Paul galleries at Herron School of Art and Design. The title is derived from neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) who referred to dreams as "day scraps."
Images above:
I created a grid over the surface of the bed using thread and straight pins. I recorded 2,736 measurements taken at the grid coordinates and transferred them to graph paper. The data was provided to the collaborator for rendering in ARC GIS.
"Looking For Elsewhere" Stonehenge paper, 38 X 72 inches, 2009. Graphite tracings and era sings of bed wrinkle patterns. Recorded each day and subsequently erased, over a 30 day period. The drawing is comprised of residue from daily tracing and erasing. The final tracing from day 30 remains.
"Shift" Ink on Stonehenge, 38 X 72 inches, 2009. Accumulative recording of directional shifts in the wrinkles of the bed sheets over 30 days period.
An example of a bed surface that has been mapped onto a large, plastic sheet. These tracings were used in "Looking For Elsewhere" and "Shift", 2009. The tracings have since been destroyed.
"Looking For Elsewhere" Stonehenge paper, 38 X 72 inches, 2009. Graphite tracings and era sings of bed wrinkle patterns. Recorded each day and subsequently erased, over a 30 day period. The drawing is comprised of residue from daily tracing and erasing. The final tracing from day 30 remains.
Looking For Elsewhere and Shift
Two drawings, each 38 X 72 inches on paper, 2009 (graphite, and the other ink) created using bed tracings created during 30 day residency.
Day Scraps (after Freud)
This drawing series consists of 30 drawings that depict imagined cognitive patterns and thought processes that occur in the mind and brain during sleep.
Night Tracks
Night Tracks was a project conducted over the 30-day period that I slept in the Illges Gallery at Columbus State University, GA. Behind a temporary wall, I slept on a cot. Each morning, I photographed the bed sheets in an aerial view taken from atop scaffolding that was constructed directly over the bed. Body shifts during sleep formed wrinkles in the bed linens subsequently producing a ‘topographic residue of sleep’. I refer to these traces of movement as night tracks. In this case, “The Topography Of Sleep” is a metaphorical reference for the location of sleep, and itinerant travel through wakefulness and sleep.
"Night Tracks" 30 black & white silver gelatin prints, printed 2010. Shown: 36 X 96 in. I slept in a public gallery for 30 days. Each morning, I photographed the bed I slept upon. This project was generously supported by an Alabama State Council on the Arts/NEA Fellowship.
Tracings of bed surfaces after each night of sleep over 30 days. 2008