Duration: 1:27

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Hello and welcome to High Park Branches.

found on December 13, 2023
This is a series of 3D models (created and animated in Blender using a custom Python script) drawn from various branches that I have found arbitrarily laying on the ground after wind storms in High Park, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Each of these models were then used with the same software (written by me using C++ in OpenFrameworks) that drove the 'Custom Catastrophe' interactive installation presented in the summer of 2023 for Nuit Blanche North in Huntsville, Ontario. The accompanying sounds were recorded in High Park as well, though not necessarily at the same time and at the same location that the branches were found.
This interactive installation was produced for the show 'what' presented at Back Lane Studios in Roncesvalles, Toronto between April 12 and 28th, 2024. The idea is that participants interacting with the installation create a windstorm that causes branches to break from the trees above (which are not visible but implied) and scatters them about on the ground. The resulting configuration forms a final visual artwork and the accompanying sounds are recorded as an audio composition. The visuals are then transcribed by me as either a small scale India Ink painting on watercolour paper or as a large scale acrylic painting. It is in this way that participants are able to create a work unique to them and their actions. The results are meant to be understood as a document of collective psyche - the psyche of the forest, myself, the environment within which the work was presented, and of course the psyche of the participants.
Every one of the branches have their own character and their own story: an endless series of events and influences that determined the spots where these dead branches finally landed.
They are presented somewhat like the 3D characters that you see rotating on the screen when starting a video game.
Each of the videos features the animation of the branch, then a photo of where the branch was initially found, and a clear image of just the branch in isolation. Sometimes extra material unique to the moment of discovery is included too such as in this video with the Incredi-Squirrel. He was there guarding the branch but eventually I got the ok.

project page:
https://robgillthings.net/projects-2/high-park-branches/

prints and paintings:
https://things.robgillthings.net/collections/high-park-branches

show page:
https://robgillthings.net/shows/gallery-shows/what/

Custom Catastrophe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qH7EDekHNZU&t=22s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g-9RPKxj_w&t=23s
https://robgillthings.net/projects/custom-catastrophe/

#newmedia #audioart #generativeart #mediaart #openframeworks #blender3d #mediaartist #canadianartist #3dart #canadianartist #forestart #highpark #interactiveinstallation #newmediaart





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