Jane Bennett, a political theorist, introduced the concept of "vibrant matter" in her book "Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things." At its core, vibrant matter challenges the traditional view of matter as passive and inert, instead suggesting that all matter possesses a vitality or agency of its own. Bennett’s writing explores how this understanding can inform our approach to politics, ethics, and ecology by recognizing the interconnectedness and vitality of all things.
Inspired by her work, I began to consider the agency of other entities in the world as form makers. Noticing how the wind moved the branches of trees made me wonder what kinds of forms would emerge if I traced the path that they drew. I began to collect short videos of different plants moving in the breeze, and traced out the lines they drew frame by frame. During this process, I used a wind meter to collect wind speed data as an accompaniment to the drawings.
I created a series of publications based on the specimens I collected, each one containing image content from the videos, the drawings themselves, and a short description of Bennett’s ideas of vibrant matter. The drawings also live online as a interactive compilation.