Breathe
Video, 3:07
Description
Breathe explores the effect of the perpetual anxiety around breath and breathing brought on by the advent of the pandemic. This anxiety has distorted how we view ourselves, interact with others, and exist in the world after being continually confronted with exponentially mounting deaths and the incessant spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Biography
Alex Vonhof was born in Edmonton, Alberta and is currently a student in the Honors College at Michigan State University pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art, with a concentration in Electronic Art Intermedia. He has also participated in the Ars Electronica Festival University program sponsored by Ars Electronica and Johannes Kepler Universität in Linz, Austria. Vonhof has exhibited at the Eli & Edythe Broad Art Museum, SCENE Metrospace, the Kresge Art Center Galleries, the Electronic Art & Intermedia Festival, and at several performance venues across Michigan. He was awarded Best in Show at the Department of Art, Art History, and Design Undergraduate Exhibition, a First Place Award in Visual Arts at the University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum, and a grant for public artwork from the Michigan State University Financial Credit Union. This fall, his work can be seen as part of the show A Few Degrees of Change at SCENE Metrospace, sponsored by the MSU Museum and Science Gallery Detroit. I am an interdisciplinary artist working in sound, installation, and performance at the intersection of science and art. I examine the relationship between humanity and the natural space; the ways that we treat, or more accurately mistreat, the world. In doing so, my work enables the Earth and all non-human beings to speak of their collective pain. I am concerned with the inactivity of ruling bodies and the general populous in response to the climate emergency; my work is intended to generate the discontent, anger, and agency that is prerequisite to any widespread pattern of change. I have recently been researching the ways that we as a society package and distribute natural sounds and resources for psychological, commercial, and/or personal benefit, understanding the hypocrisy of this action given our treatment of the natural space, and methodologies for vocalizing natural systems and the aforementioned collective planetary pain.
Reflection
The completion of this project would not have been possible without the CREATE! Microgrant. With the funding, I was able to purchase TouchDesigner, a software to control a node based visual programming language developed by Derivative. This program is one of if not the most important software(s) for the creation of multimedia and/or video projects, but this comes at a substantial cost. This was greatly reduced due to the funding provided by the Microgrant. The purchase of this program did not only allow me to complete this project, but will provide access to this incredibly important technology for years to come, likely until its obsolescence. This establishes an important foundation from which to build a practice in the multimedia arts, and for that I am incredibly thankful. Finding inspiration and the drive to keep making during the pandemic was incredibly difficult. We all were living monotonous lives and therefore it was incredibly easy to become stagnant in artistic practice. The solution that I found was to pour myself into my work, and through that find the passion and excitement that was so lacking in everyday life. This was, without a doubt, the most important lesson I learned from working during the pandemic. I have found strength and success through dedication and continued making in the face of adversity. Other College of Arts and Letters students would absolutely benefit from further funding, having the cost of a project stand in the way of an amazing idea is something that student artists have to face regularly, and inhibits the growth of each individual artist. This should never be the case, and is part of the reason that this program is so successful and attracts so many applicants. This funding program should absolutely be continued for the future, but I would encourage a shift in thinking away from projects only dealing with the pandemic to a more open call addressing the plethora of global challenges that we as a society are currently facing, as the pandemic is unfortunately just one of many.