Photograph by Samuel Stubblefield Title: Central Park at 1.625 m/s2
SPACE,
MUSES,
ETC.
Samuel Stubblefield
about the exhibition
Samuel Stubblefield discusses his intent for SPACE, MUSES, ETC.
Curious pieces from Stubblefield’s workshop, SPACE, MUSES, ETC. is a focus on methods, materials, and processes within the studio. The intention is to broaden the viewer’s definition of art and encourage self-provocation and active pursuit of the personal curiosity inside us all.
The exhibition pulls from recent work on display at the European Cultural Centre in Venice, Italy, during the 2019 Biennale, The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, Art Basel Miami, and in-progress work from the artists Seattle and Hong Kong studios.
Stubblefield is known for a collaborative, anti-disciplinary approach, merging unusual materials and situations such as plants, boats, computer vision, earthquakes, the internet, jellyfish, real-time danta from nature, miles of bungee cord, mixed-reality technology, urban conditions, projected video, oceans, robotics, natural landscapes, and software algorithms.
Technology has shaped music. In 1400 BC, Nippurians used cuneiform tablet technology to create the earliest known form of recorded music. In recent history, inventions in otherwise unrelated fields have had a substantial impact on music and have even aided in birthing new genres. But what has the invention of the internet done for music?
Largely, access. Access, while valuable, is the only major thing that the internet has done for music. Musicians and composers have been unable to effectively incorporate the internet, and the mass amounts of data that we now have, into the music-making process. Perhaps the most interesting invention of the past 50 years has become little more than a music marketing tool. Meanwhile, it has been decades since a major genre has been birthed.
“Data Music”, or “Data,” is a new genre of music that directly responds to the invention of the internet by using realtime internet data in a generative music-making process.
DATA MUSIC (sound)
Ongoing work
PC, internet, custom software, speakers
Samuel Stubblefield discusses "Data Music" installation.
SEEING SPACE
2020
Digital print on fabric, internally-illuminated aluminum cabinets
Samuel Stubblefield on "Seeing Space".
People have been looking out to space for a long time. For most of our existence, we have looked up and wondered. In very recent history, we have begun to understand what we are looking at. Stars are spheres of gas, our sun is a star, the moon is lit by our sun, and so on.
This work puts a graphic “lens” on celestial objects as a suggestion for viewers to consider their own points of view on the solar system, its objects, and our changing relationship to space.
As we begin to have a more intimate relationship with space -and now that we realistically consider the occupation of the moon and Mars- this works asks viewers to thoughtfully consider these things that have moved from curious, magical, objects in the sky, to landing pads and off-planet resources.
Special thanks to archivists at NASA and ESA for assistance in this project.
Remember a time on a summer night when you laid on your back and stared at the night sky and felt insignificant in that vastness of space? In SPACE, MUSES, ETC. at the San Juan Islands Museum of Art (SJIMA) Sam Stubblefield intends to deepen that same sense of awe in us.
The fog descends just after sunset. As the time of sunset moves, so does the time of the fog. It starts with mare’s tails and billows over the exhibition released in rhythm with solar flare activity. Finally, the glass atrium gallery appears as a mysterious white cloud. As the fog reaches into the 20-foot ceilings the daylight exhibits recede and the lights and neon works emerge. Awe.
About those solar flares --they wash across the earth, but the only manifestation we can see are the Northern Lights. Not able to compete with those shimmering skies, Stubblefield aims to observe nature in his own way. The NASA and NOAA satellites monitor sunspot activity and Sam’s timer releases more or less fog in concert with them. Making fog is his fun way of bringing his own nature-like phenomenon into the exhibit and flipping a switch in thinking about nature and art.
THE GENIUS OF FOG
2020
Samuel Stubblefield discusses "The Genius of Fog" installation (4.5 mins)
You can experience the daily fog show beginning at sunset each night from the street or sidewalk through the glass. The installation appears utterly different compared to daytime.
Samuel Stubblefield on "How to Look at the Sun".
HOW TO LOOK AT THE SUN
2020
Digital print on fabric, Sun image courtesy of NASA
Stubblefield discusses his thoughts behind "How to Look at the Sun", a large photo of the sun by NASA where we can easily see solar wind activity captured and highlighted by a pink bar overlay.
The piece was designed to be viewed from the museum exterior and is an integral part of the dynamic "The Genius of Fog" daily show at sunset.