Carbon Dating

Back in the Carboniferous, molecules met molecules, creatures met creatures, plants cross-pollinated; we all came out of the primordial swamps we now call coal. It's the family graveyard. Birds and homo species co-evolved in a dance of carbon dating – shared ancestors, aunties, distant cousins. “Carbon Dating” is interactive. The soundtrack is triggered by the arrival of a visitor via a movement sensor. A second soundtrack is activated when the visitor uses the sound buttons. Listen to the separate soundtrack components.

The first skull mask was made at the inaugural Bimblebox Camp, housing a fragile birds nest. The soundtrack is made up from field recordings from Bimblebox (the dawn chorus), Fowlers Gap (a creaking windmill) and the Burragorang Valley, (a rural gate creaking on its hinges, Boyd playing the gate).

dimensions variable, 6000mm long, 2000mm H x 300mm deep aluminium, coal, rubber, birds’ nests, original soundtrack, interactive sound system, greenhouse gas audit and offset

"Carbon Dating" was premiered in Goulburn Regional Gallery's "What Lies Beneath?" in Nov – Dec 2013, an exhibition examining the rapid growth of coal and coal seam gas developments around New South Wales. It is part of "Bimblebox: art – science – nature" which opened in Brisbane Redland Art Gallery (18 May – 29 June 2014) NB: Event schedule same as Coalface 2014

 

 

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