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Tamarind A. Rossetti-Johnson
"Orbital Revolution: An Exploration in Visual Conceptual and Physical Communication"
Sponsor: Kevin Radley, Lecturer, Department of Art Practice

• Project Description
• Scholar's Photo
• Scholar's Journal

Tamarind will create an experiential multimedia performance piece that involves viewers in exploring processes and representations of communication. Live performers will interact with video documentation, photographs and drawings of visual symbols of technological communication, such as satellite dishes, telephone wires and television antennae. In order to add a global dimension to her performance piece, Tamarind will be traveling to Mexico this summer, where she will be researching, collecting and documenting images and interviewing people in Mexico City and Oaxaca City, focusing particularly on the traditional dances of Oaxaca performed during the Fiesta Guelaguetza. "Orbital Revolution" will use images and actions that reflect each other-the dish of the satellite, the curve of the eye, the orbit of the planet, the path of the dancer-to illustrate the many forms of global communication and the human desire to connect.

When I saw a flyer for the Haas Scholars Program, I was interested in doing a multi-media performance project. I was encouraged to apply, but also discouraged by some who thought this program was geared towards scientific research. Although my piece is process oriented (it has changed dramatically from its initial conception), I applied with a clear final idea in mind. I hope that those who are interested in getting funded for artistic endeavors will apply. I wrote the following journal entry while traveling in Mexico this summer, documenting various forms of communication, specifically verbal, technological, and physical exchange:

Hot in Oaxaca in the summer. Rainy season. Alone. Never been here before, wondering what I'll run into. I didn't know what the rainy season really meant until now.

I see satellite dishes everywhere. Didn't know what to expect from my initial interest in satellite communication. Here they call them "discas parabolicas," which is beautiful in reference to vision and form.

.....

Now I am in a restaurant. The afternoon rains came. The streets nearly flooded, but I was on a hill. The daughter of the woman who owns the restaurant is holding a little baby dog; it's soaking wet. I ate chilaquiles with guacamole, which the daughter said is strange. It was good. I'm the only one in the restaurant. I see people with umbrellas. Discas parabolicas. I have taken millions of photographs, but today I just look and write. Project coming together slowly.

Hard to keep receipts for everything. The rain is starting again.

Tamarind Rossetti-Johnson
July 21, 1998
Oaxaca, Mexico