Light Installation Controlled by Eco-Systems

BREATHE (2019)

White Night Melbourne, Melbourne Museum, AUSTRALIA, August 2019

Digital Agora, St Andrews, AUSTRALIA, September 2019

Geelong Arts Centre, AUSTRALIA, November 2019

Breathe is a light installation inspired by organic structures. This artwork features recycled acrylic tubes, printed with images of microscopic elements from natural environments. Inside the tubes are led lights. The colours and patterns of the lights are controlled by environmental changes that occur in significant international ecosystems. This immersive installation was created in response to research and field trips in the Amazon, Panama and Australia.

BREATHE provides audiences with an organic encounter, one that’s mediated by digital technology. This art lighting installation does not replicate nature. It presents hidden elements from natural environments, bringing the micro to macro scale. BREATHE uses microscopes, environmental sensing equipment and audio recording equipment (including hydrophones) to uncover aspects of nature that people cannot experience without the use of specialist tools. This installation makes concealed natural elements available to audiences in order for people to gain a new perspective and a deeper connection with our natural world.

BACKGROUND

In 2019 Betty Sargeant took part in the LabVerde: Artist Immersion in the Amazon program. During this program she conducted studies and collected environmental data from deep inside the Brazilian Amazon. The audio and environmental data she collected in the Amazon forms a core part of the BREATHE audio and visual installation.

In 2019 Betty collaborated with international environmental artists as part of the Digital Naturalism Conference and the Digital Naturalism Artist Laboratory program in Panama. This involved data collection, jungle-based field research, knowledge sharing and collaboration. The data that she collected in Panama was fed into the audio and visuals of this artwork.

CREDITS

Betty Sargeant ~ Artist (micrographs), technical design, producer, field recordings

Justin Dwyer ~ Artist, technical design, programmer, composer

THANKS

Florian ‘Floyd’ Mueller and the Exertion Games Lab, Monash University, Australia

CONTACT

Betty Sargeant lives and works on the unceded land of the Yaluk-ut Weelam clan who are Boon Wurrung people. She pays respect to ancestors, elders and communities.