Current Space is proud to present Fruiting Bodies, a solo exhibition by Amy Reid. Join us Saturday April 24 from 6-9pm for the opening reception!

Fruiting Bodies is part of series of an ongoing investigation titled Unearthing Queer Ecologies. The title references the term Queer Ecology which scholar Catriona Sandilands describes as “recognizing that people often regard nature in terms of dualistic notions like “natural and unnatural,” “alive or not alive” or “human or not human,” when in reality, nature exists in a continuous state.” This project pays homage to this idea by sonically and visually revealing the growth and life of plants that have been deemed “queer” by culture and organisms that are “queer” in the very nature of their DNA such as; lavender, pansies and various mushroom species.

Technology is often perceived as creating a disconnect with nature as well as disengaging society from the present moment. This project uses bio-sonification, an innovative process in generating sound, as a way of using technology to physically and creatively connect with “non-human” organisms. This process can be achieved through the use of electrodes and the hardware, Plantwave, which picks up subtle fluctuations on the surface of these organisms as they grow. Through the use of an interface or DAW, these fluctuations are then translated into MIDI which provides information that can be sent into analogue and digital synthesizers thus producing sounds.

The sounds and audio-responsive visuals celebrate the histories that lie beneath a culture with a rich history that has often been overlooked and regarded as unnatural. Fruiting Bodies challenges this notion and blurs the lines between natural and synthetic realms by interpreting information through video projection, sound, growing organisms, and sculpture.

This project is supported by a Rubys Grant from the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation.