Morose Code
Video Loop Version
January, 2021 - Morose Code is a looping video piece & a 3D model that is based on the sensations that might be associated with visiting the Residential School site remains. Morose Code taps a beat against the grounds, sending out a sensory message to the pulses and energies that might still be resonating (or lingering) within and around the site.
Morose Code is abstract in the sense that it connects with the ethereal as opposed to the concrete, or tangible entity. The piece speaks to the constricting nature of being held in captivity - under the guise of learning/education/refinement/civility/taming.
This piece is loosely based on the following quote from Basil Johnston's book Indian School Days:
"Bells & whistles, gongs and clappers represent everything connected with sound management - order, authority, discipline, efficiency, system, organization, schedule, regimentation, conformity - and may in themselves be necessary and desirable. But they also symbolize conditions, harmony and states that must be established in order to have efficient management: obedience, conformity, dependence, subservience, uniformity, docility, surrender. In the end it is the individual who must be made to conform, who must be made to bend to the will of another." (pg.43)
The piece initially began as a study in the ways that authorities use 'sound management' to control individuals. As the work developed, it became more of a call to and across the land that housed the Residential Schools. It is a question to ask whether the lands are ok, but also a comment that the lands must be granted the opportunity to rest.
The audio uses taps that resemble morse code. The piece changes the words to morose because it is felt that the land is in need of reparation.
MOROSE CODE // 2019 - 2021 // 3D Model and Looping Video versions. Both versions use the 3D Model of expanding/contracting lungs. Based loosely on a passage from Basil H Johnston's book Indian School Days.