Fionnáin @ephemeral@mograph.social

I realised recently that the different publications, video and research from my 'wood wide web' project were a little scattered all over the internet, so I've created an archive page where to link everything together, to find everything a littler more easily:

https://shanefinan.org/visual_art_pages/woodwideweb.html

(reposted because of a typo on the link!)

#introduction

I'm a visual #artist working who builds #interactive digital media installations. I'm a supporter of #opensource and #commonage or #commons (digital and physical).

I am working on projects about 'networks' (woodland, digital, human) and planning to use a platform for a project in the UK later this year.

Look forward to meeting #artist #curator #environmentalist #programmer or anyone interested in a world built on community!

I'll post some recent #artworks here to get started.

Over the years I have found some amazing marginalia, notes, bookmarks and other memories tucked into the pages of library books. This morning I found this letter asking for participation in the 1970 Dublin regatta in an obscure Sylvia Crowe book, "The Landscapes of Power" (1958).

It is very possible that this book has not been taken out of the library since Mr. Flannery had it in 1970.

Coincidentally, only yesterday I was reading about the bank strike in Ireland in the same year, 50 years ago.

October is a great month for foraging. These Hedgehog Mushrooms (Hydnum Repandum) are called "the ultimate safe mushroom" by forager John Wright, because of those unmistakable tiny stalactites. I can also testify that they are among my favourites for filling out a meal and have a lovely, soft flavour.

Also nabbed a few late apples from a tree hidden in the woods :)

Complementing my ongoing art project about forests and fungi, I've been invited to make new work about disease and livestock, with six UK universities (led by the University of Lincoln).

Networks, connectivity, microbiology and humans. And, of course, viruses (the theme of 2020).

https://field-wt.co.uk/blog-news/2020/10/07/meet-our-new-artists-residence/

"Earlier this October, nearly 100 students occupied their university after the right-wing national government of prime minister Viktor Orband transferred ownership of the public university to a private foundation and appointed a new board of trustees, without an open and public vacancy, made up completely by government associates, and therefore stripping the university’s power completely."

https://networkcultures.org/blog/2020/10/08/the-institute-of-network-cultures-stands-in-solidarity-with-the-budapest-university-of-theatre-and-film-arts/

I'm going to throw this into the ether and see what comes: I'm interested in trying to build a biocomputer (i.e. a computer using living organisms as part of the mechanics). To start with, I'd just like to try something simple: moisture sensors using soil, or a direction planning device using fungi - something like that.

Does anyone have any experience building a project like this that might be able to point me in the right direction?

Scratch that - now heartbreakingly postponed exhibition due to renewed COVID-19 restrictions. That was a lot of work by a nice team.

A new art exhibition about environment and technology, that I have curated, is launching this week in Tubbercurry, Ireland.

https://as-tree.shanefinan.org

It is an exhibition of questions:
Is it possible to understand the communications of root systems? What if we saw our landscapes as an extension of ourselves? Why do we see a difference between weeds and other plants?

An update from Langholm Moor - community buyout of land in Scotland.

https://mailchi.mp/928dacd6416d/an-update-from-langholm-moor?e=ec93c825b0

I saw a Martin Kippenberger installation in Berlin some years ago. On the wall were photographic prints of incredible, expressionist paintings, printed large in full colour, in frames. In the middle of the gallery floor sat a large rubbish skip, filled with broken paintings, canvas, frames.

This, for me, was a perfect artwork.

The first time I saw Sophie Calle's work was an installation kn the Whitechapel gallery in London. It was a piece about a train journey that she took - the Trans-Siberian, where she met a Russian. He did not speak French and she did not speak Russian. In frustration at not being able to communicate, he pulled out a chess board. She played, badly, and lost, repeatedly. She photographed him, he beat her at chess. This is how they learned to communicate. The installation communicated this to me.

In galleries, I usually lament the use of text to explain artworks. This creates understanding rather than perception, and is thus contrary to what an artist is trying to do. If an artwork is good enough, it just needs to be experienced. Reading about it won't improve it, even if it clarifies something about it.

The mistake galleries (and audiences) make is believing that the explanation will improve the art, when it actually detracts from it.

The writer David Abram used to perform magic tricks at a diner, as recorded in Merlin Sheldrake's 'Entangled Life'. The diners would often return later in the evening asking if he had slipped something in their drink during the performance. They found that the colour of the sky had changed, or that birdsong seemed louder. What Abram believes happened is that they began noticing - they saw his hands doing something that hands should not do, and had their perceptions challenged.