Installing Ecologies

The Sonic Boom is named both as an homage to Seattle's location as the hub of Boeing's airplane manufacture and its function as musical instruments. These outdoor sculptures resembling large, blooming flowers are installed just next to the iconic Space Needle. Each one has a sensor that detects when someone is near it and when it does, it plays a note. When all the flowers sense someone, they together play harmonious music - although whether or not you think the sounds are actually cacophonous depends on the listener. This uncanny resemblance of the structures looking and functioning as a giant version of a real, living flower doesn't stop there: they are powered by the sun. Moreover, the artist who made these installations, Dan Corson, imagined them to be reaching for our galaxy's star - in a similar way that we see sunflowers do. As we stare at these beautiful and near self-reliant, man-made structures, we find ourselves dissecting what parts are needed for the whole to function and thus, which is the starting point from which to start to call something "alive."

Constructing and Consuming Nature

These giant, man-made structures in Singapore are engulfed by the green of the vines and leaves. They mimic trees a tourist might find in forests and by doing so, blurs the boundary between what is or is not constructed. The viewer begins to wonder if nature can actually just be produced as long as it has certain features, like the color green. But the observer also wonders if these are abominations created by the vice of capitalism. Although envisioned by the government as a way to increase the quality of life by providing more green space within a city filled with concrete buildings and car exhaust, the space is constantly consumed by tourists and linked to nearby restaurants and luxury retail stores that drive the city-state