Above: a video sample from the slower, longer duration work that moves at a much more contemplative speed.
Vastness
Anne Beffel, project concept, photography and video
Aidan Conrade, sound design
Jayden Palarz, sound design
Tom Stiles, sound design
Angie Gecosky, production coordination and video editing
December 4 to 15, 2024
Wadsworth Hall Studio, Michigan Technological University
Houghton, MI 49931
December 12, 2024 to January 15, 2025
West Reading Room, Van Pelt Opie Library, Michigan Technological University
Houghton, MI 49931
January 15 to present
Van Pelt Opie Library, adjacent to Meditation Room
Houghton, MI 49931
Vastness is a collaboration initiated by Anne Beffel. Sound Designers Aidan Conrade, Jayden Palarz, and Tom Stiles interpreted Beffel's photographic images using audio. Angie Gecosky assisted with video editing and coordinated production. Our goal was to create a meditative experience (loosely defined) for viewer-participants.
The photographs are based on Beffel’s observations of the relationship between vision and our daily lives. How we see influences us just as much as what we see.
The video composed of Beffel's still images tracks shifts along the horizon where the waters of Lake Superior meet the sky. The images transition into one another at a speed almost imperceptible to the human eye, challenging viewer-participants to consciously notice what is happening. Sound designs, accessed via QR code and played via cellphones, invite viewer-participants to be present to what unfolds from one moment to the next. The asynchronous sound-image relationships shift with each cycle.
Embodied within Vastness’s “beautiful” aesthetics are key visual and auditory practices. Zooming our attention in to attend to details and out to expand our awareness to include spaciousness, we experience life at a scale that is far larger than the harms humans do. This meta-awareness makes room for us to notice our thoughts, be present in our bodies, and regulate our nervous systems as we face environments and news filled with overwhelming events. As Drs. Labsong and Arpaia (1) note from their perspectives in psychological sciences, medicine, and Buddhism, “When your mind is spacious, you are able to let go of your usual ways of organizing information. This letting go allows you to find solutions to problems that appear impossible.” This “letting go” is even more powerful when accompanied by the sense that we are not disconnected individuals, but parts of something much bigger. These glimpses of parts-connected-to-wholes may be the most important by-products of Vastness.
Vastness enables us to inhabit our different subject positions, and recognize our varied histories and perspectives, as we come closer to a shared experience.
1. From Real Meditation in Minutes a Day (2008) by Joseph Arpaia and Labsong Rapgay
Wadsworth Hall Studio, Michigan Technological University
Houghton, MI 49931
December 12, 2024 to January 15, 2025
West Reading Room, Van Pelt Opie Library, Michigan Technological University
Houghton, MI 49931
January 15 to present
Van Pelt Opie Library, adjacent to Meditation Room
Houghton, MI 49931
Vastness is a collaboration initiated by Anne Beffel. Sound Designers Aidan Conrade, Jayden Palarz, and Tom Stiles interpreted Beffel's photographic images using audio. Angie Gecosky assisted with video editing and coordinated production. Our goal was to create a meditative experience (loosely defined) for viewer-participants.
The photographs are based on Beffel’s observations of the relationship between vision and our daily lives. How we see influences us just as much as what we see.
The video composed of Beffel's still images tracks shifts along the horizon where the waters of Lake Superior meet the sky. The images transition into one another at a speed almost imperceptible to the human eye, challenging viewer-participants to consciously notice what is happening. Sound designs, accessed via QR code and played via cellphones, invite viewer-participants to be present to what unfolds from one moment to the next. The asynchronous sound-image relationships shift with each cycle.
Embodied within Vastness’s “beautiful” aesthetics are key visual and auditory practices. Zooming our attention in to attend to details and out to expand our awareness to include spaciousness, we experience life at a scale that is far larger than the harms humans do. This meta-awareness makes room for us to notice our thoughts, be present in our bodies, and regulate our nervous systems as we face environments and news filled with overwhelming events. As Drs. Labsong and Arpaia (1) note from their perspectives in psychological sciences, medicine, and Buddhism, “When your mind is spacious, you are able to let go of your usual ways of organizing information. This letting go allows you to find solutions to problems that appear impossible.” This “letting go” is even more powerful when accompanied by the sense that we are not disconnected individuals, but parts of something much bigger. These glimpses of parts-connected-to-wholes may be the most important by-products of Vastness.
Vastness enables us to inhabit our different subject positions, and recognize our varied histories and perspectives, as we come closer to a shared experience.
1. From Real Meditation in Minutes a Day (2008) by Joseph Arpaia and Labsong Rapgay