Twisting Metal With Earth
- Submitting institution
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Arts University Bournemouth, the
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- Meadows_32104 Twisting
- Type
- Q - Digital or visual media
- Publisher
- The International Journal of Creative Media Research
- Month
- October
- Year
- 2020
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- Yes
- Number of additional authors
-
-
- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- Twisting metal with earth comprises a video and a 3,000-word research statement published in the peer-reviewed International Journal of Creative Media Research.
The video presents three couples’ experiences of weather. The recordings of each participant are spoken by animated characters modelled on mechanical climate sensors. In a blending of computer-generated and live motion video, the characters are introduced as weather stations placed in a garden, near a roundabout and a hilltop viewpoint. The dialogue is a result of interview questions that prompt the subjects to consider how climate data is generated, the benefits of climate prediction and their personal experience of weather.
In creating these characters, Meadows aims to open up a concept of climate sensors beyond their use as accurate measuring devices offering useful data, but as visible material interfaces that offer an aesthetic experience of the massive but often invisible forces of climate change and big data. By giving the mechanical climate sensors a voice, he explores the symbiotic relationship between humans and machines in understanding and creating their environment. What are the surprising textures and registers of this cyborg voice and what does it reveal about his position as editor and animator?
Meadows observes that the texture and register of the cyborg voices load the aesthetic possibilities of doubt, drama, frustration and fun onto the grey and chrome rationalism of scientific instruments. They become charged with the ability to act as objects for thinking about massive issues by opening up conversation from a variety of terrestrial viewpoints. The representation of voices and design of characters blur the boundaries between the global (networked mechanical data) and the local (immediate experiences). What emerges from the video is an attempt to imagine the texture and register of conversation from our situated perspective in the terrestrial, the critical zone.
https://www.creativemediaresearch.org/post/twisting-metal-with-earth
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
