Video
2022
What Are We Made Of? poses a double question. On one hand, the experience asks us to examine man’s reliance on materials for survival, what those materials currently consist of, and what they may look like in the future. On the other hand, it asks us to reflect on the will of humankind as if it were a material. Will humanity be brittle in our ways and remain unchanged until nature breaks us, or will we modify our mentality and invest in a future where nature and man can mutually thrive? Many feel hopeless as we bear the burden of our potential demise. But what if there was a future where instead of using our technological advances as an attempt to dominate nature, we use our technology to coexist in a more extreme and variable environment?
*The images depicted are artistic representations of materials that could exist in the future performing at the microscopic level.
2: AI-assisted crack detection and mitigation.
3: Fully recyclable polymers.
4: Reverse-corrosion coating for metals.
5: Injectable bandage that dissolves into the body after the wound is healed.
This short film was premiered in the 2022 Earth Day Art Model, an online global telematic event hosted by the Donald Tavel Arts and Technology Research Center at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis https://earthdayartmodel.org/
*Credits: The poem used in the song is John Davies’ Preserving the Last Starling The second snippet in the video is called Bubble Raft Model and was uploaded by the RI Archives. The third snippet in the video is called Steel Corrosion Timelapse, uploaded by GalvanizersAssoc.