THE GARDENERS

The Gardeners is an interactive installation about living traditions, the preservation of knowledge, and respect for our ancestors and our posterity - for what has come before and what will come when we are gone. In this growing database of depth camera captures, ordinary people and houseplants are recast as mythical participants in the ritualistic passing on of a mysterious knowledge. There is no urgency, no great drama or bombast. The otherworldly human caretakers simply tend to the wild garden, patiently waiting for the next group to appear and take their charge. The viewer who slows down and takes the time to observe, is acknowledged and silently invited to join the lineage.

All imagery is taken from the direct depth image capture of a RealSense depth camera. A set of pre-recorded loops of various Colorado and New Mexico native plants are used to create the illusion of a large garden or jungle. Between the layers of plants, figures come and go as they tend the plants, plant new seeds, or simply sit in meditation. These asynchronous loops create the foundation for the piece. When audience members sit in front of the projection for long enough, the figures begin to notice them, stopping what they are doing. One at a time, they come to sit, looking out at the viewer. After a while, the viewers own image appears in the fold, reflecting back at them. The user, captured by a hidden real sense, becomes one of the Gardeners, there to sit with and greet all those that come after.

A collaboration with my wife, Joanna Metcalf, the physical installation features a zafu (mediation cushion) surrounded by braided rope “vine” that winds its way up along the edges of the screen. Embedded on the vine are mylar flowers with RBG leds that pulse and glow with the colors of the constructed environment.

The Gardeners at Currents New Media Festival, 2019, in Santa Fe New Mexico