Megan Replies to Pete’s Reply

Okay, I think we’re really getting somewhere in regards to a basic shared vision for the Microcosmos. We probably had a very similar feel for what it could be all along, but it has been an excellent practice for me to have to sort it all out through the very mindful form of the written word.  

I agree with what you say regarding the use of the floor, walls, and ceiling.  For the Microcosmos to function as a fully experiential or consuming space, I think every element of the space needs to be at least taken into consideration, if not utilized.  We experience the “real” world in a totally surrounding way and so should we the Microcosmos.   A rather art-speak way of saying it is that it is not a series of sculptures with sound in a space, it is an installation that recreates the space.

In fact, everything you say here is right on, and we should go with these basics:

This leads me to visual it like this: the experience of the Microcosmos is of entering a space - the space feels limitless, it is dark and contains numerous lit objects, multiple sounds emanate from within the space. It makes it feel as though sounds and objects are not always visible - some objects are only glimpsed at certain times - some sounds emerge from the darkness.

I definitely agree that not everything is visible at once. Perhaps some things endure with a force.  Perhaps some things only suggest themselves, like a whisper.  Things come, things go. Things, of course, being sounds, objects, imagery.  There is the potential for all kinds of meaning, relationships, suggestions to be made in how things ebb and flow between each other.  This will be a dance; a kind of lila perhaps.  But also a careful and intentional orchestration. 

As we think about this orchestration--time and space and what changes and how it changes--the ideas of linear and non-linear keep entering my mind.  I believe, for a reason that is mostly intuitive, that the Microcosmos should have a non-linear force, perhaps with some linear thread. Perhaps external seasons are the linear thread?  Perhaps something else?  My feeling is that the Microcosmos is a study and expression of the nature of things, and within the nature of things there are some things that are linear—clock time, calendars, moon cycles—and many things that are not—storms, memories, tree branches, emotions, thoughts, and so on.  Some things march in a straight line, some things play by the known rules of time and space, and some don’t. 

 I also think this idea you expressed is an important element:

I feel there could be moments in the Microcosmos where we are invited to consider a single object/location/sound, where everything else fades for a moment and, let's say for argument's sake, a red light picks out 'Tree-Spoon' and a solitary cello line plays (I imagine other things drop to the background rather than halt altogether).

When I shared the Microcosmos with my husband, Json, he listened to the sound for SpoonTree and stared at the object.  Afterward he noted that by listening for an allotted time he ended up spending more time with the object (visual objects in museums etc hold a notoriously short attention span), and had a longer, more developed, relationship to it.  He expressed how having this one moment with the one object and the one sound allowed him to really be with it, and that maybe in the Microcosmos there needed to be an opportunity for one to escape the whole and be with the one (ie. headphones).  I think you are both pointing at the same thing—the balance between the one and the whole; having the opportunity for a singular expression, and the time/space to be with that expression.  

So, I have yet to talk about your questions/suggestions regarding symbolic imagery (uteruses, etc.), chakra colors, or prosaic objects and their inherent meaning or mystery.  I feel that is a whole separate post unto itself, delving into how as a visual artist I attempt to make meaning.  I look forward to writing it, but for now, I’m signing off.