The spinning movements and collisions lead to the damages.
After hours of running, the program stops at the last captured comment and leaves the ruin.
Twitter comments are projected on the wall at first, with the shadows of the spinning movements, forming the visual. Meanwhile, the kelp leaves gradually break into pieces.
The sounds created by the collisions of the sculptures are one important part of experience.
The artist will adjust the focus of the projection at a certain time interval to bring alienation effect into this project.
Giant kelp sculptures made of plaster are connected with electronics.
Small stones adhere to leaves to show naturalness.
All the movements of kelp are controlled by Twitter comments respectively.
Fukushima Offset
2021.8
Reference
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIJFTbAS6S0&t=231s
Music: https://www.westonemusic.com/album/wom-502/celebrating-500-inspiring-orchestral
Project
"Japan announces it will release treated radioactive water from Fukushima nuclear plant into sea.
Radioactive iodine from Fukushima found in california kelp. Some radioactive material probably accumulated in marine life that eat the kelp.
There is no published research on what radioactivity might do to fish at the levels found in the kelp.
The announcement comes a decade after a massive earthquake and tsunami triggered a triple meltdown in March 2011."
Fukushima Offset is a project about the dynamic relationship amongst the media news, the public discussion, and the event of Japan Fukushima treated water. An installation of giant kelp is designed to display the complex relationship by sounds and visuals.
Twitter comments from four public media are gathered as data, controlling the spinning movements, at the same time, projected. The giant kelp sculptures gradually break and create physical sounds because of the movements during the process. The installation after a long time of the collisions transforms from the representation of a biological species to a complex symbol. After the event filtered by the walls of media, is the ecological issue transformed into political condemnation and a bargaining chip for taking sides? This project asks whether peoples' opinions can be passed on to the reality itself to have a positive impact and explores the relationship between marine life (the reality) and the public discussion.
Until the moment of finishing the documentation of this project, the last comment captured was on 2021-5-26 01:52:56 (CST). The decision of releasing treated water hasn't been changed and the radioactivity had uncertain effects on the giant kelp, or fish and other marine life.
Code / Modelling / Projection
Electronics / Plaster / Wood
2023
FutureTense Media Art Award - Top 10 selected