Breath Clouds

RESEARCH BACKGROUND: Cottrell was one of nine artists invited to participate in 'THISNESS' a group exhibition that explored the essential qualities of their nature through the fashioning of their materiality/immateriality. The works exhibited challenged the audience's relationship with interior spaces and interrogated the defining properties of perception. The exhibition as a whole sought to highlight compelling approaches toward the manipulation of our physical environment and to contend the actions that constitute contemporary spatial art and design. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION: 'Breath Clouds' comprised of a responsive audio visual installation which used custom electronics and programming to produce a system that responded to the small scale amtospheric variations caused by weather and human occupation of the gallery. This innovative research project used specifically developed software programming and electronics to visualise and auralise the fleeting atmospheric changes caused by breath. Chris Cottrell conceived the project and developed the electronic sensor system and soundscape, while Jeff Hannam developed a dynamic visualisation based on the same sensor data. This project extended Cottrell's research practice that explores issues of air, breath, immateriality and spatial perception. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE: BUS Projects is a prestigous Artist Run Initiative, funded by the Victorian State Government, through Arts Victoria. Exhibition proposal are selected by a curatorial board (see http://busprojects.org.au/people/). A catalogue documenting and contextualising the works in the exhibition was also produced.