Statement
John Watrous, artist
February 1997
I find that trying to understand our Planet improves awareness but also increases the sense of mystery about it. My work tries to connect to this mysteriousness brought on in part by today's overwhelming access to information. Just as we need filters (librarians, search engines) to sort through information, my work is my filter.
I've been fascinated by all the attempts (process) by humans to understand and appreciate our home planet, both those proven successful and those not. I especially enjoy seeing the visual aids and tools they designed for this research.
I enjoy playing in the field of art and technology and don't shy away from areas of interest simply because I'm unqualified to understand the lingo. This habit leads me into many long-learning-curve activities seldom connected with traditional artistic behavior.
I respect and come from a background in research. I consider what I am doing as basic creative research. I think it is important that people in the humanities brave their way towards an understanding of this technological era we find ourselves living in. Technology is a tool. I find it a beautiful one and am especially intrigued at how human interpretation changes it.
Current areas of exploration
D e v i c e
What I am actually making. Art and the tools for the art process. Not including the hardware/software tools which enable and remain process.
- Sculpture
- Prayer Wheels
- Homage to an Inventor, Dr. John Kraus
- Site homages: Ball Rock, Lithia, Portuguese Beach, Butternut Lake, Gearhardt Ridge
- Site installation mapping devices (pseudo-surveyor)
- Tools
- Drawing
- meditative, 'napkin' drawings
- graph interpretations
S i t e
Some sites have unique, unseen but felt characteristics, but some really only have the energy which people have brought to them. Much has been written about power sites but I find after reading it, I am free to select my own sites for my own reasons. My sites have a mesmerizing quality.
- Selection
- historical, traditional, geomancy
- volition, meditative qualities
- Mapping
- Coordinate systems
- topo as drawing
- Satellite data interpreted
- weather as the most 'seen' of the unseen
- Installation at
- site specific considerations
- portability, impermanence
S e n s i n g
The Electromagnetic Spectrum plays an important role in my work. I've been increasing my breadth of research, bandwidth, but it all falls into the category of "the Unseen." As a visual artist, mostly, I find myself attracted to the 'ether' or things we cannot see. Even audio relates here.
- Remote Sensing
- Gearhardt Ridge: beacon OCAR
- Swamp audio
- Real time events
- versus 'almost' real time and net limits
- trend away from real time in life
- Spectrum research
- Magnetosphere: VLF-listening to lightning
- Ionosphere: VHF-mapping the unseen
My web page(http://www.sonic.net/~jwatrous/watrous.html)
My email(jwatrous@sonic.net)
This page (http://www.sonic.net/~jwatrous/statement.html)