Your Word in Lights
Participatory Media Performance by Daniel H. Dugas and Valerie LeBlanc

Description

Many of our projects focus on the environment and the passage of humans in the landscape.
Your Word in Lights falls into this category.

We will ask visitors to offer us one word that describes their overall impression of the site. For example, the word might represent a description of the light quality at Hopewell Rocks, an animal or plant that comes to mind when experiencing the site, or a sense of wonderment inspired by the scale of this natural setting.

Participants will be able to stop by our setup on their way back up from walking on the ocean floor during low tide, or after they contemplate the overall view during the high tide. We will record the participant’s word onto a laptop and with a USB key we will transfer the word onto a portable LED sign. At times, we will go mobile and locate on the ocean floor, other times, we will install the setup on the staircase. Your Word in Lights will serve as a beacon and a reminder of the inspiration that this unique location can provide.

In our project, Fundy (2017-2019), we researched the biosphere around the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick and in Nova Scotia. Looking through the lens of changing atmospheric conditions and the evolution of human inroads to pristine environments, our aim was to create videopoetries that showcase current conditions and possible futures of the areas we examined. The Hopewell Rocks is one of the locations that we did not have a chance to visit. Our exhibition Fundy is scheduled to be presented at the Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery, Halifax, May 15 – July 11, 2021. We see the Fresh Air Residency as an opportunity to include the Hopewell Rocks into our larger Fundy project.

Depending on the number of persons wanting to participate, each message will be featured until a new word is suggested by the next person. With their stated permission, the photographs or video of participants experiencing their words in lights will be published, onto the project webpage.