Deep Now & The Seed Bank Project

Abstract

The Deep Now & The Seed Bank Project critically examines flaws in Western Society's tendency towards singular perceptual and singular analytical ways of constructing reality. The exhibition is built from cultural signifiers of both loss and hope, expanding on the belief that what we leave behind is an indication of the future. I am among one of the first generations to expect a future in flux, and in order to adapt, our methods of problem-solving need to expand to include both analytical and automatic thinking strategies. As a relatively new civilization that has expanded its influence globally, the instigation of metacognition between the head and the heart could ignite the fundamental psychological shift to understanding deep time within Western Society. Only with a sense of empathy, as well as deep humility for reconciling our place within the larger eco-system of the earth, will the future look brighter for future generations of all life forms. Looking at both analytical and automatic thinking patterns exhibited within Western Society's evolutionary trajectory, this paper posits that both are valid problem-solving strategies depending on context and flexibility. This involves understanding our reality as a construct, fabricated from both cognition and phenomenological experience. Accepting that this construct will demand flexibility in interpretation as the future changes insures a more cognizant relationship with our environment. Deep Now & The Seed Bank Project was formulated with a rich recognition of cultural signifiers that relate how the 20th and 21st century established Western Society's values as well as a self-consciousness of our era. Through flow state drawing processes, artefactual sculpture and ritualistic, reliquarizing seed banks, the work hopes to deviate from apocalyptic visions, while recognizing an eminent paradigmatic shift in the future of Western Society. The exhibition harks to focus clearly on the clues from the past to rebuild a more interconnected and sustainable intention for our projection into space and time.