Dragons (Lunar Nodes) Dance is a 3-D video projection that utilizes North American Aerospace Defense Command data and lunar nodes to create an experience that is both stationary and in constant motion. The lunar nodes (white circles at the top and bottom edges of the piece) are painted from a terrestrial viewpoint of where the Moon's orbit around the Earth intersects invisibly with the ecliptic plane of the Earth's solar orbit. Composed of a North and South point, these nodes are often depicted as a constellation resembling a dragon chasing its own tail. By reassembling data into new configurations, this work shifts the viewer's position as they observe the ever changing celestial bodies above. Dragons (Lunar Nodes) Dance, is influenced by the avant garde 1960's French artist collective, The Situationists International. In their work, the Situationists utilized map-making to engage with their subjective psychological associations concerning place. Psycho-geographical maps redefine how people relate to their surroundings by making the intangible, tangible. Approaching this work as a response to the Psychogeographical process, Dragons (Lunar Nodes) Dance seeks to disrupt typical celestial star-charting methods through systems of organization that draw on more objective viewpoints.

Time | Space Curatorial Statement

All of time and all of space exists in this moment. In the time it takes you to read this sentence, you will have traveled 1,560+ kilometers, as our planet and solar system hurtle through space at a breakneck pace. As technology develops, so does our perception of time and space. When tasked with curating a media arts exhibition for the Salmon Arm Art Gallery, my primary consideration was choosing a topic that would be relevant to this place and time. And so, along with 10 incredible artists, I embarked on a journey to bring together artworks that focused on the here and now itself. With technologies both new and familiar, artists have created works that highlight where we are in time and space by drawing on themes of communication, nostalgia, navigation, temporality, loss, connection, and agency. It is my belief that the Art Gallery is a space where one can become aware of their own presence in the universe, on both a small scale and also an unquantifiably vast one. As viewers navigate the Gallery, it is my hope that the ripples of their own presence here and now will spark moments of curiosity and contemplation that extend beyond the walls of this building.

Acknowledgements:

Concept + Animation: Uii Savage

Photo Documentation: Damen Archard

Installation and Documentation: Damen Archard