SPARKLE
“The beginning of awe is wonder, and the beginning of wisdom is awe.”
About the Research
Whether visual or otherwise sensed, sparkle is an ecosystem’s intimate way of surprising. It delights, reorients, and energizes. It disrupts our default modes of perception, granting access to wonder and consequential states of humility, reverence, empathy, and engagement.
I began recording moments of sparkle at Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest: dew, snow, darting insects, twinkles in scientists’ eyes. I observed the posture I assumed when perceiving sparkle—a dexterous, playful state—and how attending to sparkle infused that posture with humility, empathy, and delight. Soon, I saw sparkles everywhere. They refreshed my perspective, helped me navigate difficult conversations, enchanted my days.
Sparkle is ubiquitous, undeniable, and exceptional. Now, throughout the Northeast and beyond, I am collaborating with moments of Sparkle.
In the studio, I use Sparkle “data" collected in situ to guide gesture, speed, and color. I do not aim to illustrate but to evoke Sparkle as energized, dynamic becoming. To do this, I embody the posture Sparkle trains me to enact: embracing surprise and vulnerability with wonder, dexterity, and levity. It’s a creative, contemplative practice, intuiting and honoring the fleeting moment of “being it.” The process teaches me how to feel Sparkle, surf it, contribute to it.
In additional to visual expressions, this research passes the experience on through interdisciplinary collaborations, talks, and workshops.
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