One day in winter 2010 I was sitting on a Montréal rooftop late at night, looking down at Avenue du Parc from above. A man in a white lab-coat emerged from the épicerie across the street. He started un-hanging these large sculptures shaped like fruits and vegetables from an awning and carrying them into the store. It wasn't so much the moment where the project was conceived as it was the moment of realizing it was already under way. Following that the work consisted mostly of making connections.
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When you read about consciousness and perception they talk about the 'binding problem'. A common way of illustrating the problem is to imagine observing an apple as it rolls across the floor. As you're perceiving this, the shape, color, texture and motion of the apple are each detected in widely separate regions of your brain. The problem is that we really don't know how the brain connects these widely spaced neuronal responses into a coherent perception of the rolling fruit. What we do know is that whilst these connections and synchronizations are occurring, the nerve cells in your brain produce 'gamma' waves - simultaneously shooting off electrical signals at about 40 times a second.

First exhibited at Eastern Bloc, Montréal, March 2011.
[Fiberglass Fruit / flying fruit planes / 2 channel video installation / 8 channel surround audio / sub-woofer & gamma waves]

Participants:
Nick Smith - audio collaboration, gamma waves and pop foley
Fruiterie Mile end - sculpture and video
Brooklyn Aerodrome - fruits and vegetable airplanes, pilots, video
Rona Parc & Bernard - restoration materials