{"id":4313,"date":"2009-11-17T23:00:21","date_gmt":"2009-11-18T03:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/improvisedlife.com\/?p=4313"},"modified":"2013-10-08T20:48:44","modified_gmt":"2013-10-09T00:48:44","slug":"thomas-ashcraft-artist-as-electroreceptor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/improvisedlife.com\/2009\/11\/17\/thomas-ashcraft-artist-as-electroreceptor\/","title":{"rendered":"thomas ashcraft: artist as electroreceptor"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"untitled-2\"<\/a>
Thomas Ashcraft<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Could the planet finally be ready for Thomas Ashcraft? He’s been called an “artist-scientist-philosopher”, “inventively creative almost beyond belief”; a “scholar-mystic<\/a>“; “a romantic visionary”; “inveterate experimenter, artist and extrapolator”; none of these words do him justice. I’ve known him for many years and followed his work closely, so I was happy to hear a profile of him on NPR<\/a>. Long considered “an artist’s artist” because his work so defied description, Ashcraft has pushed the envelope so far that it has twisted into the eighth dimension and re-emerged on the other side of the cosmos. This is not really an exaggeration. In 2008, for instance, he installed a complex system of ponds, gardens, electrical labs and “public thinking chambers”\u00a0at\u00a0the Center for Contemporary Art<\/a>s in Santa Fe, New Mexico,\u00a0accompanied by a sort of nocturnal rave<\/a> of live Jupiter radio bursts captured with his radio telescope.<\/p>\n

His 2005 show<\/a> at Cue Art \u00a0Foundation in New York was guest curated by the artist Bruce Nauman<\/a> – an unabashed fan – and received great reviews. (“…galvanizes the imagination.”*). And then, he suddenly vanished from the scene. He reappeared in New Mexico, where, as he said on NPR, he spends starry nights communicating with the heavens:<\/p>\n

“On one level, I’m a radio-astronomer, radio-scientist, radio-naturalist; on another level, I’m calling myself an electro-receptor. So, a painter paints, a sculpture sculpts, and an electroreceptor receives…So, I feel like I’m carving out a new form and inventing a new role, which is not really inventing – possibly innovating – and it may be an ancient role, actually.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

His work gently opens the mind to new ways of seeing things.<\/p>\n

You can find some of his current work at his website\u00a0Heliotown<\/a>, where there are many wonderful things to explore. I recommend opening a separate web page to access his\u00a0Experimental Sounds, Musics and Phonography page<\/a>. Click on a selection to listen to music and sounds while you browse the site. One of my favorites is Beacon .118 (Lagoon)<\/a>, which is similar to sounds I remember from one of his exhibitions.<\/p>\n

Another gorgeous sound file is Ashcraft’s recording of\u00a0Meteoric Space Dust Particles Colliding With the Earth’s Ionosphere<\/a>: small meteoroids hitting the upper ionosphere culminating in the deep, haunting sound of a larger fireball meteor passing through. (After the first few seconds of a voice announcing universal time, it is 5 minutes of \u00a0pure “music”.)<\/p>\n

At\u00a0Ashcraft’s Rain Barre<\/a>l, you can browse the Microbe Video Archive, to watch a charming, curiously touching video<\/a> of a paramecium and the unexpected appearance of a mysterious visitor…<\/p>\n

…Or view small, perfect \u00a0sculptures and “ideograms” on themes of Bacteria and Bacteriophages<\/a>…<\/p>\n

\"ideogram-11\"<\/a><\/p>\n

…or view Pollenetties<\/a> “an edible pollen delivery system…” part of Tom’s exploration of portable energy foods,…<\/p>\n

You’ll also find\u00a0astonishing videos<\/a> of fireball meteors lighting up the night sky, made with an experimental all-sky capture system rigged with something called a forward scatter radio array. This is basically a video camera with a fish-eye lens aimed straight up at the sky; one evening it captured the impromtu\u00a0visitation\u00a0of an owl on its lens<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You never know what you’ll find when you visit Heliotown. It’s a galaxy of its own, containing worlds within worlds. Can’t explain — just go there — you’ll come back with a new light in your eye, and interplanetary music in your ear.<\/p>\n

Click here to listen to the NPR profile of Tom<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here’s<\/a> a pretty good overview of some of Ashcraft’s past work, from a 2001 Art in America article.<\/p>\n

*The New Yorker<\/p>\n

With thanks to David Saltman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Could the planet finally be ready for Thomas Ashcraft? He’s been called an “artist-scientist-philosopher”, “inventively creative almost beyond belief”; a “scholar-mystic“; “a romantic visionary”; “inveterate experimenter, artist and extrapolator”; none of these words do him justice. I’ve known him for many years and followed his work closely, so I was happy to hear a profile…<\/p>\nRead More<\/a>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4312,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8360,458,88,31,6549,8364],"tags":[594,592,595,591],"yoast_head":"\nthomas ashcraft: artist as electroreceptor - Improvised Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Could the planet finally be ready for Thomas Ashcraft? 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