Motion Studies

Motion Studies, brings together investigations at the intersection of Art and Science. At the core of the project are the actual motion studies undertaken in Dr. Bret Tobalske’s flight lab at the University of Portland and translated into video first at the lab and later in my studio. Motion Studies uses a fluid imaging system known as digital particle image velocimetry to examine the structure and momentum of the wake of flying birds. The work and power that the bird puts into the air as it flies are revealed as stunning moving pictures. The fluid dynamics of the air currents the birds generate are made visible by the application of vivid colors and grids that respond to the flow of air generated by the bird’s flight. At times this footage is like a moving abstract painting, at other times the motions of the bird’s flight becomes more explicit. For Dr. Tobalske these moving images provide a way to convey the excitement of the discoveries he is making about the way birds use their muscles and wings to move through the sky. For me the birds’ flights evoke both the shear “otherness” of wild creatures, and the yearning we humans feel when our observations of birds suggest the impossibility of true bodily flight. Combined with these basic images of air currents and flight are layers of additional footage of wild bird mating dances, and flights, shot on location in Portland during the migrations of Sand hill Cranes and Vaux Swifts through our area. This footage has also been altered by the Digital particle velocimetry imaging system. An abstracted sound tract of digitally manipulated bird song accompanies the video