Stillness & Motion
a digital stream
and image of a process
(a project in progress)
it’s not my idea
and yet it does appeal
and affords new space for play
from straightforward natural process
and beyond to the metaphorical littoral zone
where definitions of nature come to be challenged
by seemingly inescapable elements of the Anthropocene
if slime mold can create a network of protoplasm
that maps onto the motorways of the UK
when given identical topography
by what agency were the real roads made?
are humans really not doing the work of nature?
process. change. motion picture as paradox.
frame by frame of stillness, conjured by a trick of the mind.
everything is a process, at once being and becoming.
moment by moment in one endless stream…
Tarkovsky once spoke of a film
that would consist entirely
of natural processes
this is the idea
that is not my own –
an elemental action film
made of verbs: earth, air, fire, water
wood burning, shifting sand, falling water
rain and wind and lightning flashing
but what then of the processes of industry?
the droning of jets and clouds in straight lines
jackhammer percussion and street lights glaring
the moaning of trains and boomboxes blaring
do we think we are so different
living in our thin veneer?
we are always coming and going
ashes to ashes, sunrise, sunset
we are a process proceeding
always becoming what we are
digital streams tumble down from
analog mountains on their way
home to the ancient ocean
which is itself a process
and remains present
here in this place