HASS Grant Proposal - 2024

The proposed project presents an uneasy clash between an anthropogenic environment of ritualized preservation, and the mutability of decay. Upon entering the space, participants are enveloped by a three-channel video of blowfly larvae, installed across three walls (the fourth contains bench seating). Shot through the glass of the larvae’s terrarium, the videos are semi-abstracted by condensation, light flares, and muddy slime; framing the installation space in “stained glass” that separates the pristine interior from a messy, rotting exterior. A chorus of voices reverberate from speakers placed around the room, oscillating between ecstasy and despair as if unsure of who, what, and how to mourn from this position of complicity. At the center of this container lies an (in)human figure on a steel table. In contrast to its formally clean surroundings, it is twisted, hollow, unbound. Small transducers are embedded within. If you listen through one of three stethoscopes provided alongside the table (implicating yourself in the clinical observation of this body), you can hear Other sounds: the soft wet undulations of maggots, buzzing blowflies, hissing vultures, croaking ravens, wind in the trees, falling leaves, bird song, a distant stream. 

Framed within the implied contexts of religious ritual and medical/ forensic procedure, the installation contends with the Christian and secular scientific dualisms that relegate the corpse to abject waste. In contrast to these institutions’ typical fixation on the preservation of life, this project considers death and decay as immanent and even vital states of being and becoming beyond anthropocentrism.

ABOVE: Rough mock up of the installation, featuring a three-channel video projection across three walls, a central sculpture with embedded transducers on a steel table and accompanying stethoscopes, and bench seating (pews pictured, but could be other benches or risers). The final design of all elements is TBD pending venue resources and other parameters.

BELOW: A sample of voice recordings sent between Elektra and KS in 2022 - an early collaboration and practice session in which we sent intuitive recordings to each other every day. In this clip, three such recordings from both Elektra and KS are combined in a single composition. Although this is not what our final composition will ultimately sounds like, these clips capture the history of collaborative experimentation. The final composition will play from speakers installed around the installation space. It may also be possible to place 100w transducers (that I own) under the benches as an alternative or additional means of amplification.

 ABOVE: Three 30-second video clips of the sarcophaga bullata larvae in my guest room - recorded from outside their glass terrarium. This is just a small sample of the footage I have, taken across several days and three cameras. Videos like these will be edited together to create the three-channel video installation. I plan to edit the footage to rhythmically sync with the keening audio enveloping the installation space.

ABOVE: Two one minute sound clips, recorded with the sarcophaga bullata flies in my guest bedroom: (1) maggots; (2) adult flies. These recordings, among others, will be incorporated into the inhuman sounds emanating from the transducers embedded into the body of the sculpture. Participants can hear the sounds clearly by moving a stethoscope across the body to locate them, or by placing their ear or forehead directly against these spots on the sculpture.