Jill Scott. Juried Artist
Constellations
Installation at QUT Kelvin Grove
Artist Statement
This document and touchscreen from AURALROOTS show how audiences were encouraged to explore their tactile and aural sensory perception by engaging with oral histories within an immersive art installation. This interactive project shows how visitors were scaled down to 5 nanometres to interact with 24 hanging sculptures to trigger three various sonic compositions. The sculptural forms are inspired by the functions, behaviour and forms of stereocilia, tiny inner and outer hair cells on our auditory nerves located in the organ of Corti in the cochlea. Through AURALROOTS, art researcher, Jill Scott explores how sound and memory are related to the healthy conditions of our environment and the ways we learn inside three sonic environments: hearing in the womb, oral histories from First Nation elders in the landscape and experimenting in the audiology lab. These three compositions are based on low, medium and high frequencies. For example, in the mid frequency, AURALROOTS reveals oral history stories from traditional aboriginal cultures about the healing benefits of wild plants and roots. The overall aim is to explore learning through touch, sound and embodiment. AURALROTS is part of a large series of work called Neuro_Eco_Media -interactive art projects about sensory perception and environmental science.
About the artists
Prof. Dr. Jill Scott is a media artist, a curator, a writer and an art and science researcher. She is professor emerita from the Zurich University of the Arts (ZhdK) in Zürich, Switzerland, and founded their Artists-in-Labs Program in 2000. Her own artwork spans 44 years of production about gender equality, design, the human body and body politics. In the last 20 years she has focused human health based on research into molecular biology, neuroscience, botany, and ecology. She has had many international exhibitions in both art and science venues. She also curates LASER Salon in Zurich for the Leonardo Society USA and writes books on art and science (Springer and de Gruyter) www.jillscott.org
Credits: ARTIST & DIRECTOR Jill Scott FUnDING: Pro Helvetia, The Swiss Arts Council. PROGRAMMING & ELECTRONICS Nikolaus Völzow INDIGENOUS STORIES RESEARCH Tess Corino RECORDINGS King Street Studios and Koori Radio, Gadigal Information Service, Sydney, Australia WOMB SOUNDS Les Gilbert (Magian) University of Melbourne ANIMATION Andrew Quinn ILLUSTRATIONS: Natascha Jankovski CONSTRUCTION HELP Patrick Jost • Marille Hahne SOUND MIX Olav Lervik • Gregg Skerman
URL: www.jillscott.org