Degrees of Mediation or Materiality → Memory → Myth
The myths superimposed on the materiality of our terrain are the building blocks of our identity and culture. They define who we are, create a connection to the land and each other, and influence our actions. In a digital, global and high-speed myth-making context, stories are progressively being detached from local and material connections. As the connection between materiality and myth weakens, we lose knowledge and care for our physical environment, leading to destruction and forgetfulness. Understanding how materiality becomes memory and then myth can teach us how to weave new stories on individual and collective scales.
The following steps outline my proposed method of reading the symbols superimposed on the terrain and tracing how they morph across myths as an act of remembering and preserving.
01 Gathering stories, images, symbols, maps, and documents from digitised archives or encyclopaedias.
02 Plotting the findings on one surface - digital or physical - and forming clusters based on themes or content.
03 Connecting clusters based on shared narratives. Then, identifying lineages or “degrees of mediation.”
04 Per lineage, formulating the bigger narrative being told - ex. search from freedom, defence of territory, etc.
Curonian Spit
In the case of Lithuanian sea(side) terrain, online archives and journals provide a good overview of recognisable natural elements (dunes, lagoon, pine trees), reoccurring stories (Eglė žalčių karalienė, Jūratė ir Kastytis), and regional identity markers (gliding, bird marking, sailing). The most unique clusters form around human interventions to manage the terrain's natural processes, especially efforts to control the dunes by planting trees and vegetation in rectangular patterns, which prevented shifting sands from continuing to bury towns and protected the Curonian Spit from eroding entirely. The terrain is mediated through maps of towns which have disappeared, through images of planted trees and the patterns they form, and through documentations of pilgrimage-like journeys to the Curonian Spit. Some of the overarching narratives in this cluster are resilience - survival in harsh conditions - and care - seeing beauty and value in the terrain of a homeland and making active effort to preserve it.
Peeling back the layers of symbolic intervention reveals how a physical terrain turns into a culturally and ideologically charged landscape. Reconstructing these elements allows for an exploration of connections between materiality and mythology, nature and culture, preservation and transformation. For the finale of the HeyHuman! residency at Domestic Data Streamers, I translated my research into a proof-of-concept installation, based on the findings of the Curonian Spit case study. The installation combines three elements: a video (containing a montage of archival sea shots), an audio track (atmospheric sounds from the dune area, paired with recordings of folk songs about the sea) and several satellite images printed and wrapped around a rock-shaped object. With this installation, I want to invite the viewer into my process of dis- and reconstructing the Curonian Spit, both as a physical space and as a cultural and conceptual construct. Moving forward, the research can be applied to other landscapes and the artistic exploration can evolve with more mediums and more alterations.