Looking and seeing more | Leonardo/ISASTwith Arizona State University

Looking and seeing more

By Sasha Petrenko
seedeer Hello. It's my first post and I'm uncertain how to begin so I will do as I usually do, just throw myself in. Rather than summarize all the wonderfully enlightening conversations and encounters I've had over the past week I'll be using this blog to record my process and observations, which is and will be surely influenced by the people, fellow artists, scientists, Djerassi community, this land, the animals, the redwoods, the sky, secret sea and fog. Thank you. The landscape here is so bio and geo diverse. Hot scrubby hillsides and then suddenly moist and fertile forests. There are old old redwood stumps here. I keep seeing faces in them. Anyways, I'm trying to make some work about california geology and hydro-fracking. Really! In this clip I am channeling the Farralon Plate, the one that makes the SF Peninsula. Did you know that millions of years ago it was consumed by the Pacific Plate, then it rose up again. But's it's a fragile little piece of tectonics compared to the Pacific and the North American Plates. Link to video here Oh the deer. Right. Walking the trails the other day, stopping to listen to the birds, the trees, when I looked up to see this creature in mid path, looking back at me. Remembering my animal observation skills, I began trying to move like the deer; long necked stillness, followed by a trepidatious tip of the head, leg lift, leaning in and stepping only with great care. We had a meeting of minds for a good spell. I followed her around the corner. I made some sounds. For a minute I thought she might reply... What would it sound like? I wanted to hear her voice. Just before she slipped away she turned back and I took some shaky shots. Where was my zoom! Excited to try again tomorrow. I'll report back soon! Sasha P