Eli Joteva

CryoLumen is a project produced in collaboration with the environment. Each Storm Print is a material record of a past weather storm, updated with real-time solar storm data that is viewable in Augmented Reality.

Joteva begins her process by making cryo-sculptures of elements from her local environment: she collects organic materials from her surroundings and freezes them in local water. These fleeting sculptural compositions were placed over photosensitive paper and exposed under various weather conditions for the duration of local storms. They were then scanned and digitally altered to expose elements unseen in the physical paper, revealing a polarity between material and digital spaces: an ice block thaws over silver gelatin paper, to reveal its thermal qualities in a digital landscape.  This materially dynamic process further evolves into a digitally immersive space as the prints become digital negatives of organic processes that point to invisible planetary storms. Each print is overlaid with a secondary augmented reality sculpture which uses daily data from NOAA of solar wind storms. This near real-time data alters the digital sculptures differently each day by intensifying the flows of particles and the colors of magnetic lines computed from solar superstorms. In this way, the project connects the deeply personal archive of the artist’s local weather experience during quarantine, with the planetary position of Earth’s realtime endurance of cosmic storms.

 
Acknowledgments:

Real-time solar wind data by NOAA: swpc.noaa.gov/products/real-time-solar-wind. AR production assistance by Colter Wehmeier. The visualization of the coronal mass ejection is based on the magneto-hydrodynamic simulation described in Fan. Y., ApJ, 824:93, 2016. Visualization data pre-processing by the Advanced Visualization Lab, NCSA. Solar Superstorms simulations by Dr. Robert F. Stein and field line calculations by Dr. Patrick J. Moran, Michigan State University, Physics and Astronomy Department.

Bulgaria

Sofia

Little Bird Place

Photography

CryoLumen Storm Print: Snow Water in a Snow Storm

CryoLumen is a project produced in collaboration with the environment. Each Storm Print is a material record of a past weather storm, updated with real-time solar storm data that is viewable in Augmented Reality.

Joteva begins her process by making cryo-sculptures of elements from her local environment: she collects organic materials from her surroundings and freezes them in local water. These fleeting sculptural compositions were placed over photosensitive paper and exposed under various weather conditions for the duration of local storms. They were then scanned and digitally altered to expose elements unseen in the physical paper, revealing a polarity between material and digital spaces: an ice block thaws over silver gelatin paper, to reveal its thermal qualities in a digital landscape.  This materially dynamic process further evolves into a digitally immersive space as the prints become digital negatives of organic processes that point to invisible planetary storms. Each print is overlaid with a secondary augmented reality sculpture which uses daily data from NOAA of solar wind storms. This near real-time data alters the digital sculptures differently each day by intensifying the flows of particles and the colors of magnetic lines computed from solar superstorms. In this way, the project connects the deeply personal archive of the artist’s local weather experience during quarantine, with the planetary position of Earth’s realtime endurance of cosmic storms.

 Acknowledgments:

Real-time solar wind data by NOAA: swpc.noaa.gov/products/real-time-solar-wind. AR production assistance by Colter Wehmeier. The visualization of the coronal mass ejection is based on the magneto-hydrodynamic simulation described in Fan. Y., ApJ, 824:93, 2016. Visualization data pre-processing by the Advanced Visualization Lab, NCSA. Solar Superstorms simulations by Dr. Robert F. Stein and field line calculations by Dr. Patrick J. Moran, Michigan State University, Physics and Astronomy Department.

CryoLumen Storm Print: Daisies in a Rain Storm

CryoLumen Storm Print: Pine Needles in a Snow Storm

Stela Vasileva

The project for the exhibition “Nature Takes Back” includes a series of watercolor drawings of garbage fused with nature.

 “The perverse fusion between the natural and the human in a degrading and unproductive way – reached its peak today. When an unexpected isolation caused by Covid-19 showed us that there is another way” – Stela Vasileva

Drawing

Untitled 13 (Nature Takes Back series)

The project for the exhibition “Nature Takes Back” includes a series of watercolor drawings of garbage fused with nature. “The perverse fusion between the natural and the human in a degrading and unproductive way – reached its peak today. When an unexpected isolation caused by Covid-19 showed us that there is another way” – Stela Vasileva

Untitled 9 (Nature Takes Back series)

Untitled 5 (Nature Takes Back series)

The project for the exhibition “Nature Takes Back” includes a series of watercolor drawings of garbage fused with nature. “The perverse fusion between the natural and the human in a degrading and unproductive way – reached its peak today. When an unexpected isolation caused by Covid-19 showed us that there is another way” – Stela Vasileva.

Untitled 4 (Nature Takes Back series)

Dolphins swim in the waters of Venice, the air gets lighter, purified from unwanted harmful emissions, wild animals roam freely the city streets…?

Did get to fully experience the startling phenomenon, which clearly demonstrated how, in our absence, nature blossoms and takes over the marks of civilization? Have we managed to get closer to eternal wisdom, the transience of humanity, the helplessness, the fragility? Have we become more creative and kinder? Will we return to nature, beyond our ego? And does nature even need us?

Through the works of Eli Joteva, Martin Penev and Stela Vasileva, the exhibition presents psychological portraits of the human species in its communication with nature, it traces the endangered balance between the concern for our own existence and the protection of our environment.

Aspects of reality caused by Covid-19 and the sudden isolation we experienced. Social, moral and environmental lessons of an extraordinary time.

Curator: Teodora Konstantinova 

The project is supported by the National Culture Fund, Socially Engaged Arts Program.

NATURE TAKES BACK

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