Everything Is Alive – Radiotopia

An unscripted radio show that interviews inanimate objects and each episode tells a life story of an object and how they understand the world that they’re currently in.

I was recommended this podcast awhile ago now but never got chance to listen to it. Since we have subsequently had a lot of time on our hands, I have listened to a few episodes and found a solace of some sort while listening to objects talk. Even if it is a simple explanation for why they think the way they do about the context they are in.

This was something I had spoken to some people about the idea of the materials or objects I use in my work being alive and having their own stories to tell. Last semester I found a round of tree at Dunbar beach and grew very attached to it. I wanted to know where it had been when it was alive, who it had seen, what it had been through and where was it going now it was in my possession. I’ve always wanted to have the power to touch something and see where it has been.

I really like thinking about how through contemporary art, objects have become pre-made materials and have developed their own kind of materiality. Thinking about how to understand more physical things exist as materials.

Sep 27, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Visit to Think Plastic Exhibition:

Artists: Carla Edwards, Lorna Fraser, Fiona R. Hutchison, Fiona Pilgrim, Carol Sinclair, Michael P. Shaver, Peter Wilkie.

Across a range on disciplines from jewellery making, ceramics, tapestry, chemist and tree researcher. The mixture of science, research, art and craft across the whole exhibition. The main attraction to this exhibition was understand how these people were approaching materials in understanding them. Some talking about the beauty in using recycled plastic to make artwork and some were more interested in creating alternative materials that replicate plastic such as seaweed polymers. It was interesting to understand that materials could be made and could replace current existing systems.

There was a clear message to why these people had come together to show alternative methods of making materials and made people question the back log of where our materials come from. Additionally added the questioning of how it gets to an individual but also where does it go once we have used it.

This has made me think about understanding materials more through an autonomy that can easily be given to a material through allowing the conversation with the user and the material/object to occur. Understanding the material through a personified sense suggests greater understanding of the world and the surrounding environment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sep 27, 2020