“Every One, Every Day” by Priscilla Bracks

Title:

Every One, Every Day

Artist(s) and People Involved:

Exhibiting Artist(s):



• Priscilla Bracks

Symposium:

• ISEA2013: 19th International Symposium on Electronic Art

Artist Statement:

There are those who see Planet Earth as a gigantic living being, one that feeds and nurtures humanity and myriad other species – an entity that must be cared for. Then there are those who see it as a rock full of riches to be pilfered heedlessly in a short-term quest for over-abundance. This ‘cradle to grave’ mentality, it would seem, is taking its toll (unless you’re a virulent disbeliever in climate change). Why not, ask artists Priscilla Bracks and Gavin Sade, take a different approach? To this end they have set out on a near impossible task; to visualise the staggering quantity of carbon produced by Australia every year.

Their eerie, glowing plastic cube resembles something straight out of Dr Who or The X Files. And, like the best science fiction, it has technical realities at its heart. Every One, Every Day tangibly illustrates our greenhouse gas output – its 27m³ volume is approximately the amount of green-house gas emitted per capita, daily. Every One, Every Day is lit by an array of LED’s displaying light patterns representing energy use generated by data from the Australian Energy Market.

Every One, Every Day was formed from recycled, polyethylene – used milk bottles – ‘lent’ to the artists by a Visy recycling facility. At the end of the Vivid Festival this plastic will be returned to Visy, where it will re-enter the stream of ‘technical nutrients.’

Could we make another world? One that emulates the continuing cycles of nature? One that uses our ‘technical nutrients’ such as plastic and steel in continual cycles, just like a deciduous tree dropping leaves to compost itself and keep it’s roots warm and moist? [source: http://kuuki.com.au/project/everyone/ June 2, 2020]