ShapeShifter
Flight: The Vanishing of the Passenger Pigeon
Flight is a split-screen stop motion projection with layered audio sound that reflects upon the extinction of the passenger pigeon-a great species of bird that once darkened the skies for days during migration; a casualty of industrialization that was ruthlessly shot by the billions. Our centennial piece considers in part upon what it could be like to be the last of a species as hundreds of species go extinct everyday. Martha, the last known passenger pigeon, died at the age of twenty-nine, in the Cincinnati zoo; never having been able to migrate.
Images: J. O'Rourke
Audio: V. Evans
Flight is a split-screen stop motion projection with layered audio sound that reflects upon the extinction of the passenger pigeon-a great species of bird that once darkened the skies for days during migration; a casualty of industrialization that was ruthlessly shot by the billions. Our centennial piece considers in part upon what it could be like to be the last of a species as hundreds of species go extinct everyday. Martha, the last known passenger pigeon, died at the age of twenty-nine, in the Cincinnati zoo; never having been able to migrate.
Images: J. O'Rourke
Audio: V. Evans
the cockerel
Amid the sounds of traffic, cell phone conversations and the clamor of oncoming trains; a cockerel sings clear and singular. Mechanical and human movement issues through with continuous indifference. The cockerel's voice becomes an event that breaks the static field in a single moment and settles briefly to resonate in our urban imagination.
drawings: J. O'Rourke
sound: V. Evans
Amid the sounds of traffic, cell phone conversations and the clamor of oncoming trains; a cockerel sings clear and singular. Mechanical and human movement issues through with continuous indifference. The cockerel's voice becomes an event that breaks the static field in a single moment and settles briefly to resonate in our urban imagination.
drawings: J. O'Rourke
sound: V. Evans
The Cartesian theory that animals are living machines is emphasized in the audio of this short video, to which we are opposed, even if you are a stick insect. "To be full of being is to live as a body-soul. One name for the experience of full being is joy. To be alive is to be a living soul. An animal--and we are all animals--is a living soul." J.M.Coetzee: The Lives of Animals
Images: J. O'Rourke
Audio: V. Evans
Images: J. O'Rourke
Audio: V. Evans
