Voracious Homouroboros
© 2007 Cynthia E. Wood
One of my favorite art installations on the playa this year was Peter Hudson's zoetrope, Homo Ouroboros, which was SO unbelievably cool -- especially at night.
The piece is almost too complex to put into words... It's a zoetrope lit by strobe that, when fully operational, looked like an ape swinging through a tree...and while the ape swung around the tree, a snake would wind its way down one of the branches and then disappear down the ape's throat. The zoetrope was powered by a combination of energy sources (e.g., solar, bicycle). There were bongo drums (participatory soundtrack!). There were power generating bicycles surrounding the 'tree' --did I already mention this?-- all of which were equipped with molded metal monkey masks/special goggles that, during the day, were meant to simulate the stroboscopic effect. The whole thing was truly amazing. I first saw the piece during the day, and while it was really awesome in the daytime, it was positively mind-blowing at night.
According to the creator [pun intended], whom I spoke with one morning (he happened to be on site doing some repairs during one of my early morning photo jaunts), it's supposed to represent our hunger for knowledge. In a nutshell. There was also something about re-writing the Adam/Garden of Eden story, and our proximity to apes...
Here's a Wired article that talks about the piece, and features a wonderful photo by my friend Lane Hartwell (aka "fetching").
Comments and faves
Lushbunny (58 months ago | reply)
Yea, it was a remarkable situation, but I definitely steered clear away from installation when I was trippin' out.
JeanineAnderson (58 months ago | reply)
"the monkeys' was a fav with our crowd too. nice shot, really captures the space and visual.
aqui-ali (58 months ago | reply)
definitely one of those "you have to be there" things. :)
Mark Madeo (58 months ago | reply)
This photo captures the Night Gallery-ish, terrifying aspect of this piece. And I still believe that the monkeys were real, and merely pretending to be fake when the thing stopped spinning.
Devylin (58 months ago | reply)
This was so one of my favorite pieces. I loved standing there under it at night and really seeing it during the day, realizing oooooh yes! That's one genius guy who put that together. Loved it!
pixietart (58 months ago | reply)
everyone's favorite!
great work on capturing some of the animation.
i was stone cold sober when i saw this one night and it made me feel as if i had taken acid. quite a feat!
Cynthia E. Wood (58 months ago | reply)
yep yep yep yep and yep (and thanks, where thanks are due...). :)
hudzo (57 months ago | reply)
Hi, I'm an admin for a group called homouroboros, and we'd love to have your photo added to the group.
Panoramas (48 months ago | reply)
Génial !
Cynthia E. Wood (48 months ago | reply)