Rare Access Point was a site-specific installation made in response to the theme of "Wind Rose" for the TMU Design Fabrication Zone and Urban Farm as the 2024 Creative in Residence. The project consists of several electronic and interactive sculptures, a collaborative sound piece, immersive writing, and a performative workshop.
Rare Access Point arose from the tension of a contemporary art practice that felt increasingly disconnected from nature and community. The installation was designed with the hopes of developing more sustainable approaches to life and art making with digital technology.
My project proposal included research of sustainable practices in electronics, anti-capitalist digital art practices, and renewable energy sources. During the residency I was particularly inspired by a conversation with the Farm Manager, Arlene Throness. When I asked her if she had any experience with wind power (by which I had meant turbines), she threw a milkweed plume in the air and said "this is wind power".
Photography by Cookie Brunel and Veeshva Rana
- Contact for higher res images
Performance: Cookie Brunel, Raf Wilcot
Performative Workshop
Invitation
Soil has accumulated at the top of a city skyline. On November 5th, all wind spokes point toward this field, briefly connecting us to a hybrid plant-circuit network. On this night, long dried stalks will electrify and witness this unlikely natural phenomenon. Visitors are given the opportunity to exchange vital information and resources with the system.
This system shares knowledge of the interconnectedness of digital sovereignty and climate justice, encouraging conversations for the realignment of technology to nature. Like a screen burn-in, a digital artifact, or a mirage on a solar panel, the exchanges made on November 5th will leave traces on the network.
Sound and Context
Plants
Plant 1 - Horizontal Turbine
Wind spins the large turbine at the top which generates electricity. This can power the small pod fan and grow lights. The speaker is in the same circuit which projects the sound (electric sine wave) of the motor if it's spinning.
Dry sunflower stalks, milkweed pods and plumes, salvaged motors, speaker and wire, grow lights, creative commons PVB turbine, wind power (if wind is present)
Plant 2 - Vertical Turbine
Wind blows through vertical turbines to produce electricity. “Plant 2” has grown to mimic of this type of generator.
Dry sunflower, milkweed pods and plumes, salvaged stepper motor and wire, electronic wind (ask what this means)
Plant 3 - Plume Seed Dispersion
Wind blows the metal seed and connects the grow light circuit (electricity flows through a dead plant).
Dry sunflower stalks and milkweed, wire and shielding, grow lights, 9 volt alkaline battery (graphite, manganese dioxide, zinc, potassium hydroxide)
Resource Exchange Node - Motors and Seeds
When interacting with the Resource Exchange, consider some lessons of an Indigenous tradition, the "Honorable Harvest":
- Harvest in a way that minimizes harm.
- Take only what you need and leave some for others.
- Sustain the ones who sustain you, and the Earth will last forever.
"The Honorable Harvest, a practice both ancient and urgent, is a covenant of reciprocity between humans and the land.
...How can we reciprocate the gifts of the Earth? In... art, in science, in gardens, in stories of renewal... in how we spend our money and our precious lives, by refusing to be complicit with the forces of ecological destruction."
Dry sunflower stalks, salvaged motors, wire
Information Exchange Node - Windblown Slideshow
When the system is connected (November 5th), communicate with a node to exchange data with the network. When offline (Nov 6th - 15th), pick up slide print-outs from the ground to access the stored data. Assistive access to these documents is also available.
Dry sunflower stalks, junked printers and speakers, wire, metal, discarded transparency sheets
Windblown Slideshow
Talks
"Rare Access Point" Featured In
Non-Linear/Local Fantasies for a New Connectivity
Faculty of Information, "iCare: Designing Healing Futures" Workshop Series
University of Toronto, ON
Analog Mixed Reality for a New Art Labour: Disrupting Capitalist Realities in Digital Creative Practice
Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, & Design, Guest Lecture
University of Toronto, ON
Computing and AI Through the Lens of Degrowth
Faculty of Information, Just Sustainability Design Lab 2024-25 Workshop Series, Guest Lightning Talk
University of Toronto, Online
