Observation Maze | Leonardo/ISASTwith Arizona State University

Observation Maze

By Jenifer Wightman

Observation Maze, references Mel Henderson's Observation Shelter on the Djerassi grounds.

With luck, I found Observation Shelter - a dug out cave. Apparently Henderson was from a mining family and the shelter feels like the synergy that comes from love and hard work.

Originally I designed Observation Maze to be inside Observation Shelter, so that the microbes in the cave could have their own private gallery showing of their fellow artists! Microbe art for microbe viewers! But, no dice, the proposal was not accepted. So instead, it is art for humans (and the microbes in that ecosystem), on the NorthWest wall of the artist house, reflecting the view. 

Here is the mud concoction from all the materials I gathered in previous blog posts (materials, scat)

Here I'm pouring it into the plexiglass frame I had built (Thank You Dave Perry and Precision Plastics, Maryland. Thank you also RPI for the HASS Production Grant that supported this project.).

Making the wall mount level in the artist's barn

Installed!

A map of the materials (what will the lizards become? how does the clay affect growth? what becomes of all the green lichen? Resources are called resources because they are re-sourced!)

Thank you to all the staff at Djerassi especially Tim, Valerie, Jewel, and Sue!

And special and ongoing thanks to Cat, who has agreed to document changes over time... To Be Continued!