Geoff Brightling/Dorling Kindersley/Getty Images
Bio of the artist: Ena Kantardžić is a Bosnian-American interdisciplinary artist working in Boston's gay nightlife. Their work ranges from club lighting to prose poetry, and focuses on immediacy, language, and semiotics. Currently, they are a degree candidate in MassArt’s Studio for Interrelated Media program and a part of the Media Team at Boston LGBTQIA+ Artist Alliance.
Statement about the work: As a queer and gender non-conforming human, as well as a person of displaced origin, the act of manipulating the manufactured and the pre-determined mimics the sense of personal identity shaped by the Self. My work plays with the performance of object to queer semiotics; using recognizable symbols to convey ephemera from a non-durational standpoint. Through language, non-volatile memory, and a lithium battery in conjunction with this organic object, the piece explores the role of myth within novelty.
Observation:
Humans say, “You can hear the ocean in a seashell.”
Humans say, “You can hear the ocean in a seashell.”
Question:
Part 1: Why did humans come up with the myth of seashell resonance?
Part 2: Why do we claim nature for ourselves in this way?
Part 3: What would the shell have to say about this?
Part 1: Why did humans come up with the myth of seashell resonance?
Part 2: Why do we claim nature for ourselves in this way?
Part 3: What would the shell have to say about this?
Hypothesis:
If seashells “breathe” and live out of water as we do, had their own autonomy (as opposed to just being for us to put to our ears), how would we experience them?
Test:
By implementing literal human technology, as opposed to human belief, I am literally anthropomorphizing the specimen. Using these tools, I will make the seashell breathe.
By implementing literal human technology, as opposed to human belief, I am literally anthropomorphizing the specimen. Using these tools, I will make the seashell breathe.
Untitled (Nautilus Pompilius)
medium: nautilus shell, Arduino, acrylic, silicone tube, air pump,
The next step of this project is to create a housing for the shell and its components.
Stay tuned next week for a video mock up which includes the sound amplified by the motor, as well as designs for the housing.
