My brain has been toiling with what to do for this small, local monument for Kingston NY. I was supposed to present my ideas to the cohort this Sunday, but I’ve had little time to focus on this, and TBH I’m kinda stuck. I was super inspired yesterday by learning more about Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s work. His public participatory projects use technology in a profound way to create connections that were not there before. Particularly “Remote Pulse” was incredibly moving. His ability to connect people, strangers, to one another in such a simple way that reminds us of the other’s humanity is profound.

I like the idea of connecting different communities of survivors with whom I’ve worked as a potential direction for this monument. Of course I would need to do both the Providence and the Kingston monuments at once. Perhaps there is a way for people to leave verbal messages to survivors in one city and have the other city receive them. Multi-channel speakers surround someone and they are bathed with supportive messages. All messages submitted would obviously be reviewed before being transferred to the other site. I’ve also thought of people being able to submit statements online, but that feels less intimate.

I’m looking at Lozano-Hemmer’s piece Speaking Willow, a sound sculpture, that is somewhat like a sound bath. I created a sound bath in my Max class as my final project, so I think I have the technical know-how to begin….

I want the piece to envelop someone, like an embrace, like the softest, fluffiest blanket. Being bathed with love from strangers. While the intended audience is survivors, anyone can interact with the piece. Now what does it look like? How it’s designed will inform how people interact with it. As a public artist I know I cannot control HOW people interact with my work, but I can design the space to be intuitive and also serene so the experience is fluid, positive, and accessible. How many languages? How do I program for that?

Please stop me if someone has done this before! If you can think of artists who have done similar work, also please share. I immediately think of The Portals project by Shared Studios. While I absolutely love their concept and I think it created profound emotions in it’s participants- the physical design of my work needs to feel more open, accessible, and doesn’t need to be sound proof like these do. They also commodified the project, which I guess you gotta do sometimes.