Constellation

Full description

RESEARCH BACKGROUND: Heiss was one of nine artists invited to participate in 'THISNESS' a group exhibition that explored the essential qualities of their nature through the fashioning of their materiality/immateriality. The works exhibited challenged the audience's relationship with interior spaces and interrogated the defining properties of perception. The exhibition as a whole sought to highlight compelling approaches toward the manipulation of our physical environment and to contend the actions that constitute contemporary spatial art and design. Heiss' 'Constellation' consisted of around seven hundred micro-models that were produced through the Bolwell Edge Design Residency at the prominent exhibition Melbourne NOW (National Gallery of Victoria) in March 2014. The micro-models were developed in collaboration with the public, to investigate potential forms for future technologies and wearable devices. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION: Displayed as a 'constellation,' the micro-models presented an alternative reading - that of an 'exploded' diagram of detail, suggesting new formal languages. Heiss' project referenced Alex Osborn's seminal brainstorming text Applied Imagination, engaging with 'idea finding' through tactile, material brainstorming and the 'withholding of judgment.' The outcome was a giant vocabulary of unsorted ideas; installed at 'Thisness,' it further engaged the viewer in the generation of more ideas. This project is part of Heiss' ongoing investigation into the relationship between wearable devices, tactility and interactivity, as well as new ways of making and wearing. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE: BUS Projects is a prestigous Artist Run Initiative, funded by the Victorian State Government, through Arts Victoria. Exhibition proposal are selected by a curatorial board (see http://busprojects.org.au/people/). A catalogue documenting and contextualising the works in the exhibition was also produced.