Project idea - crashed artifact
I have been playing around with this idea for a while: build a working "artifact from the future", and surround it with a set & audiovisual presentation that will give it context.
I am impressed with a lot of the work I have seen at ITP, but it almost always stands alone, like an alien artifact plopped down by itself in the building. What if these "alien artifacts" brought along some of their environment with them? What if they were surrounded by debris, explanatory material, etc. but from their own time & place, incomprehensible to us?
Works that inspire me are things like the "Codex Seraphinianus", the artificial archaeological dig created at Burning Man in 2004, and many fascinating illustrated books & exhibition catalogs I have from Japan. All of these works are loaded with information, but requiring a huge effort to even begin to understand.
There is another work I like, called "1/1 Scale" from an exhibition called "Gundam Generation" - it is a full size replica of a spacecraft, that has obviously suffered massive damage, and has been abandoned by its crew. It is emplaced in the middle of the gallery, surrounded by a multi-screen projection of mysterious images.
I would like to work with the idea of the presence of the artifact being the result of some incomprehensible accident or tragedy, whose meaning must be discovered by the viewer.