About this project
I have been awarded the surreal opportunity to participate as an artist and scientist in The Arctic Circle Residency, Sept 29 – Oct 16, 2011. This is an annual expeditionary residency aboard an ice-class sailing ship, in the western and northern regions of the Svalbard archipelago. The program allows a small group of artists and scientists to pursue personal projects in a collaborative environment encountered by very few.
I’m developing three sub-projects for the trip: 1) 3D scanning of sea ice fragments, from which molds will be created for fabricating cast glass replicas, and for creating replicas in various media with 3D printers. 2) "Crossing into the Polar Eternities", a continuation of a current project using experimental cartographic technique to map environments in the service of art and science. 3) Using MIT "Sea Perch" remotely-operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) to explore around and below the sea ice (e.g. 3D scanning, stereo photography, video, water quality data), for use in experimental videos and cartographic maps.
The project's skeleton budget includes the costs of travel to/from Svalbard, the participation fee, and additional required clothing. Additional funding via grants will be used to acquire used 3D-scanning equipment, mold and 3D-printing materials, glass batch for casting, kiln time, Sea Perch ROV and video/sensor array, map printing, and more.
I am actively seeking exhibition and outreach opportunities for after the residency, both as part of a collaborative with other members of the expedition, and as an individual. There is incredible potential for public outreach opportunities given the nature of the project.
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Funding Unsuccessful
This project reached the deadline without achieving its funding goal on June 2, 2011.
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an 8x10" signed, archival digital print from the Arctic Circle
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an 8x10" signed, archival digital print from the Arctic Circle AND a full-quality DVD of Sea Perch video
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an 11x14" signed, archival digital print from the Arctic Circle AND a full-quality DVD of Sea Perch video
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3D print of ice fragment w/ signed map showing its location, and a signed, archival digital print of its discovery
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enlarged 3D print of ice fragment w/ signed map showing its location, and a signed, archival digital print of its discovery
Project By
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Psychology, jet engines, oceanography, Tahiti, and physics are a few of the players in what has been a refreshing period of intermittent revelations, ideas, exhibitions and purposelessness. The second half of the last decade featured works rooted in Existentialism and Surrealism, such as "Coasts" (2006), and the "Modes of Departure" series (2008-09). These installations addressed cycles of flux, transiency and nostalgia in society, and also relationships involving 3D glass form serving as both a projection surface and acoustical body for sound.
Works like "Rendition Engine" (2010) and "Lens Effects" (2010) grew from Situationist topics prevalent in contemporary art, such as "experimental geography". Whereas earlier works presented applications of personal psychology in the context the Boston community, and transient communities in general, "Rendition Engine" was an iconographic interpretation of Extraordinary Rendition, presenting in sculptural form the singular psychological experience of someone else as they suffer the effects of cultural conflict.
My current work is comprised of essays and sculpture confronting "boundaries" to human proliferation, between land/ocean, tropical/arctic regions, and finite/infinite. A realization of a personal trajectory towards the northern coasts led to questioning about what attracts humans to such locations, what they represent, and what’s happening to these environments as a result of human activity. "Expanding Tahiti" is the first work drawn from this current project.
My M.S. thesis in graduate school presented an atmosphere/ocean circulation model for determining atmospheric oxygen levels 4.5 billion years ago, and was preceded and followed by studies in music, glass, acoustics, optics, and conceptual art.
To learn more about my work, please visit: www.benbray.com.
