Hyperobject: Myhomeland

...by Paula Dawson. It speaks for itself but if you're nearby (in Australia you need to see these beautiful things). See her description below.

In these recent works I am endeavoring to make propositions which reference our experience of Hyperobjects (http://contemporarycondition.blogspot.com.au/2010/03/hyperobjects-and-end-of-common-sense.html ) a term introduced by Timothy Morton to describe  things that are temporally and materially so vast that they are almost impossible to represent and contemplate. )

Hyperobject: collective care

The drawing calls on the knowledge of the ritual of making a line at the height of a child on a wall, paper chart or doorway each year. To me, drawing the line at the height of a person’s head is not simply a metric of growth.

The drawing of this line implies care and bestows significance on the person’s existence. By reenacting this gesture of marking height in public and including people of all age groups I see this drawing as a gesture of collective care.

150 x 170 cm white conte on black fabrioano paper and mixed media

Hyperobject: Myhomeland,  proposes a way to ponder belonging and dwelling.

The use of the direct laser beam and the hologram reference current military use of holographic maps, which integrate LiDAR (laser) light detection and ranging data, for homeland security.

The computer generated hologram drawing was made by tracing marks along my lifeline, once for each year of my life and shaping them into a dwelling thereby proposing that one’s place of belonging is emergent… that it comes into existence as it is needed.

121 x 65 x40 cm HeNe laser, computer generated hologram CGH and mixed media

Acknowledgements:

The haptic drawing and computer generated hologram research is supported under Australian Research Council's Discovery Projects funding scheme (DP1094613).