"The Spider Project" installation is a mandala-vivarium for the contemplation of past and future, an interspecies collaboration. Bubble chamber recordings, used in particle physics experiments, are projected onto a three-dimensional, layered "screen" of misted, living spider-webs. These are joined by images from the micro and macroscopes of scientific research, concentrating on spiral and circular natural forms. The connection is intuitive: spirals on spirals, technology and nature, mist as the link. Taking the form of the four directions and the Center, each direction is represented by a video monitor. These are assigned an element, a color, a theme, and a sound. The Center, the "point of intelligence," is where the spiders are. Here, a gauze-enclosed pavilion contains a frame bearing webs and water mist, forming a three-dimensional projection volume. Approximately 50 spiders, Nephila senegalensis, live on this structure to create the projection screen with their webs. The viewer enters the spiders' room, separated from them only by a low fence. The spiders are free.
A requiem for the 20th-century , “The Spider Project" hovers in the moment of our culture's rebirth at the end of the last millennium. Combining art and scientific research, it represents a step towards working with the laws of nature. "The Spider Project" is an act of sympathetic magic.
The Spider Project [2000]
The Spider Project, 2000
The Spider Project, 2000
Blue (The Spider Project), 2000
Red (The Spider Project), 2000
White (The Spider Project), 2000
