provisional states (Vertebrata) is a kinetic installation involving elements from the history of the first processes of animated image making and that of the beginnings of computer science. Arithmetic, kinetic, sound and light events generated by mechanical and computer devices occur.
In my mechanisms - automated assemblies of small objects - made at the beginning of my art practice, there were these movement-related concerns: What makes movement possible? How big must the movement be for these mechanisms to move on a surface? These questions were related, in part, to my interest in the history of cybernetics and also to a fascination with a text by Merleau-Ponty (1) about biology. He writes about the axolotl and the temporal overlap, as he describes how, in the link between anatomical development and the possible behaviours of this animal (2), the future and the present overlap.
provisional states (Vertebrata ) deploys an inventory of objects derived from tomographic data of specimens from natural history collections. Animations of lights and shadows - images in the process of being made - echo video or cinematographic editing processes. It is also a project / laboratory in which the different elements can evolve and change during the exhibition, exploring the possibilities of assembling and reassembling fragments, in connection with the idea of the preservation of an experience of nature.
- Diane Morin
(1) Maurice Merleau-Ponty, La Nature. Notes. Cours du Collège de France, Traces Écrites, Seuil, 1995.
(2) While the anticipation of the possibility of walking is present in the development of its legs, at a time when it moves only in the water.
Hailing from the Kamouraska region, Diane Morin lives and works in Montreal. She studied in Rivière-du-Loup then at Université Laval, and holds a Master of Fine Arts (Open Media, 2003) from Concordia University in Montreal. Since 1998, Diane Morin creates installations linking her practice to kinetic and new media art. She works with light, sound, drawing and robotics to create in situ installations in which kinetic, sound and light events take place. She has exhibited individually and collectively in Montreal, across Canada and abroad. In 2014, she became the first recipient of the National Gallery of Quebec's « Prix en art actuel » presented in collaboration with the RBC Foundation.