Nathalie Miebach: Art made of storms

62,807 views ・ 2011-10-21

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What you just heard
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are the interactions of barometric pressure, wind and temperature readings
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that were recorded of Hurricane Noel in 2007.
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The musicians played off a three-dimensional graph of weather data like this.
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Every single bead, every single colored band,
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represents a weather element
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that can also be read as a musical note.
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I find weather extremely fascinating.
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Weather is an amalgam of systems
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that is inherently invisible to most of us.
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So I use sculpture and music
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to make it, not just visible,
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but also tactile and audible.
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All of my work begins very simple.
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I extract information from a specific environment
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using very low-tech data collecting devices --
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generally anything I can find in the hardware store.
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I then compare my information to the things I find on the Internet --
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satellite images, weather data
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from weather stations as well as offshore buoys.
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That's both historical as well as real data.
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And then I compile all of these numbers on these clipboards that you see here.
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These clipboards are filled with numbers.
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And from all of these numbers,
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I start with only two or three variables.
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That begins my translation process.
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My translation medium is a very simple basket.
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A basket is made up of horizontal and vertical elements.
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When I assign values to the vertical and horizontal elements,
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I can use the changes of those data points over time
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to create the form.
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I use natural reed,
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because natural reed has a lot of tension in it
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that I cannot fully control.
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That means that it is the numbers that control the form,
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not me.
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What I come up with are forms like these.
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These forms are completely made up
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of weather data or science data.
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Every colored bead, every colored string,
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represents a weather element.
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And together, these elements, not only construct the form,
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but they also reveal behavioral relationships
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that may not come across
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through a two-dimensional graph.
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When you step closer, you actually see
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that it is indeed all made up of numbers.
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The vertical elements
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are assigned a specific hour of the day.
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So all the way around, you have a 24-hour timeline.
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But it's also used to assign a temperature range.
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On that grid, I can then weave the high tide readings,
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water temperature, air temperature and Moon phases.
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I also translate weather data into musical scores.
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And musical notation allows me a more nuanced way
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of translating information
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without compromising it.
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So all of these scores are made up of weather data.
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Every single color, dot, every single line,
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is a weather element.
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And together, these variables construct a score.
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I use these scores to collaborate with musicians.
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This is the 1913 Trio
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performing one of my pieces
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at the Milwaukee Art Museum.
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Meanwhile, I use these scores as blueprints
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to translate into sculptural forms like this,
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that function still in the sense
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of being a three-dimensional weather visualization,
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but now they're embedding
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the visual matrix of the musical score,
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so it can actually be read as a musical score.
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What I love about this work
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is that it challenges our assumptions
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of what kind of visual vocabulary belongs in the world of art, versus science.
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This piece here is read very differently
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depending on where you place it.
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You place it in an art museum, it becomes a sculpture.
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You place it in a science museum,
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it becomes a three-dimensional visualization of data.
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You place it in a music hall,
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it all of a sudden becomes a musical score.
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And I really like that,
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because the viewer is really challenged
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as to what visual language
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is part of science versus art versus music.
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The other reason why I really like this
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is because it offers an alternative entry point
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into the complexity of science.
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And not everyone has a Ph.D. in science.
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So for me, that was my way into it.
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Thank you.
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04:11
(Applause)
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