research at S.I.

Many of the artists at S.I. conduct ongoing and unexpected research in their fields, encouraging continuous dialogue between artists.  These findings are shared regularly during themed-dinner events or as performative lectures.  Recent topics of focus include:

experimental geology/cetology

insect notation

chopped onions and futurist architecture

on properly aged cheese

investigations into the psychology of cleaning windows

can rivers tell time?

Artist of the Institute, Ashley Eliza Williams, has been conducting extensive research for two comprehensive volumes on experimental geology and cetology.  Provided below are research documents from Volume 5 of The Royal Journal of Experimental Geology and Volume 3 and 4 of The International Almanac of Experimental Cetology. These images will be included in the illustration archives of "Metazoa".

The artist ________________ has been researching the possibilities of insect behavior as alternative notation.  As an entomologist, _____________hopes to use this method as both a visual diagramming system to better understand movement patterns, as well as a collaborative measure through dance or music.   Focusing on the the notation of migration and mating patterns of the Nebraskan Silver Beetle,  ________ has discovered an uncanny sense of natural polyrhythm within general behavior structures. Not only do the beetles collectively present complex rhythms, but they change depending on the time of day. For example,  movements before sunrise are based on 4-counts, while mid-day movements slow to a 3-count system.  ____________ is currently working with a dance choreographer to translate some of these patterns into body movements.  The resulting piece will be both educational and aesthetically rigorous.

WHAT does chopping onions have to do with designing a door frame? windows and parking lots / dicing and mincing / columns and buttresses / roasting and sauteing ??  The experimental architect _____________ had no doubt that there was significant overlap between the two activities.  As a futurist architect by day and an amateur chef by night, __________ began drawing from similar measures of proportion and dimension in his cooking habits as he did in his blueprints. In fact, next year, he will be opening a restaurant with business partner and food enthusiast, ___________, called "Blueprint" which focuses on cuisine organized around the golden ratio. The dishes will incorporate many common structures found in architectural renderings including keys, scales, equations, attention to symmetry, mobility, and durability.   _____________'s ongoing research currently focuses on the onion as a driving inspiration for building design, just as recent architectural building projects present approaches to cooking and chopping methods of the onion.