Image by William Chen
Many-Headed Self
2022 | Artwork | Exhibitor
Life is But a Dream Group Art Showcase by American Dreams Records
Many-Headed Self is a collection of speculative objects that interpret memory and digital identity in five senses. Using mediums of digital fabrication, data visualization, self-tracking, and biological materiality, the work contests the separation between digital persistence and rituals of memory, decay, and legacy.
Many-Scented Self
Essential oils, embossing powder resin, paper
Scents endure the movement of time because they become entangled with memory. Reminiscent of scratch-and-sniff, this piece explores the relationship between scent and self. Eight unique essences are printed as layers of the artist’s fingerprint pattern, from bamboo to black pepper. With every scratch a new collection of odors encompasses an olfactory experience.
Many-Illuminated Self
Digital Projection, Javascript data visualization*, video footage
The overarching question of the artist’s research is: If memories were made visible, like the markings of height on a door jamb, would we reflect with greater intention? With digital technology, memories became harder to hold. Unlike physical heirlooms which decay through use, digital files appear eternal. In this piece memories are grown and tended to with careful reflection. A digital legacy might not live as files on a hard drive but as leaves on a climbing branch.
*Data visualization developed with Shinichiro Kuwahara
Many-Sensed Self
Slime mold (Physarum polycephalum), rolled oats, SLS printed resin
Proprioception is the sense though which we perceive the position and movement of our body, including our sense of equilibrium and balance, senses that depend on the notion of force. This kind of spatial memory is exhibited through the behavior of Physarum polycephalum, a yellow acellular slime mold or myxomycete. P. polycephalum moves toward food sources (oats) amorphously through branches that mature to a network for collective consumption. The enclosure’s layers embed the sense of place and instinctual navigation through spatial memory.
Many-Voiced Self
Epoxy resin, king crown conch shell, bluetooth speaker, digital recorder
Many-Voiced Self captures sonic heirlooms. Shells represent both growth and decay, home and environment. Listening to a seashell is reflective; when we listen, we hear ourselves. In this piece the peripheral audio is recorded and conveyed back as a sound object for the eternal. Sound is collected through the wearable jewelry piece enclosing a small recording device. The audio is processed into compressed sound collages. Like tides, the (sound) waves have a stronger pull on distant memories. Recent sounds retain the dry signal, sounding clearer, while older sounds take on the wet signal, becoming ephemeral. The sonic heirloom playing through the conch shell represent a set of memories from the artist’s life.
Many-Textured Self
FDM printed PLA
This data physicalization of segments forming a leaf represents a memory as a dataset. The segments position six different emotions: Appreciation, Embarrassment, Excitement, Frustration, Joy, and Sadness. The first length of each segment represents the level of emotion felt at the time of the memory. The following lengths are the levels of those emotions at later years of recollection. Feelings of appreciation are elevated and frustration reduced through time reminiscing. The number of witnesses to the memory or recollection are connoted by the varying height of these segments. Since the body’s rhythms can unveil our anxiety and elation, the surface texture contains the heart rate of each reflective moment.