EL: In Colonizing Plato’s Cave, I was dealing
with the impact of Hurricane Sandy and our
ways of adapting to environmental change.
Microbes form an essential part of a healthy
human body and biochemical cycles. My
aim was to show how we have become more
attuned to this previously invisible world, at
times looking to microorganisms as a solution to man-made problems. I was intrigued
by the writing of Manuel de Landa, and I
included depictions of lichen in my installation along with microorganisms. I included a
video, The Perspective of Lichen, which showed
a brief history of the world from the lichen’s
standpoint and the pivotal role played by
human artifacts in their transportation and
replication. De Landa has pointed out that
ancient statues constitute environments in
which one can “see ecological phenomena:
competition, host–parasite and prey–predator relationships. It is also the substratum
for the complex reactions of biogeochemical
cycles . . .”
PS: Your work also rests on the notion that art
can reconfigure standard ways of perceiving
information, especially visual information. This is
evidenced in your animation, Stealing Attention
(2009). This video came about after collaborating
with neurophysiologist Dr. Michael E. Goldberg,
the director of the Mahoney Center for Brain and
This Image is Unavailable (A Litte Red Paint Survives)
Behavior at Columbia University. What were some
(2012). 60” x 40”. Acrylic, digital print. Image courtesy of the artist.
of the responses to the video? What new information
did you glean about attention and the viewer’s experi- sued at the onset of the animation to “count the
ence of art?
number of times the Queen of Hearts appears.”
The distractors were intended to symbolize
EL: My growing realization concerns the ima con game of Three-Card Monte. After one
portance of attention; simply put, we don’t see
playin r