A Tropopause Disaster

A Tropopause Disaster is an exhibition by Connor Mizell, highlighting the importance of preserving our planet's ecosystems to nurture our bodies and communities. Preservation depends on large and small entities interacting with the natural world around them, whether cooperative or unyielding. Collaborating with artificial and biological intelligence can show us brand-new ways of seeing the world without human biases and lead us to more empathetic relationships with each other and our planet's health. The exhibition explores the interplay between the natural and artificial, the transience of life and our planet's health, and spatial intervention on micro and macro levels. What role do people play in the changing of our physical landscapes? How can we interact with art more closely and transform our understanding of how a gallery viewer should act? Should gallery viewers be passive or active in their interactions? Throughout the various installations in the space, Connor invites the audience to participate in the art, engaging with the work through their physical interaction with the sculptures and electronic media. Through participation, Connor hopes to produce moments of dynamic interaction through the audience's discovery of how each piece works and the concepts.
Two significant artworks, X-manda and Entropeas, explore biodegradation and bioelectricity that exist in all biological life. The medium in which Connor demonstrates these two laws of physics will be the sweet-tasting tangerine which will fill the room with its citrus aroma. X-manda is a synthesizer that uses the bioelectric current inside each tangerine, arranged in a grid, as a midi controller for gallery participants to touch, complete the circuit, and influence the resulting sound. This interactive piece invites humans to cooperate with nature, while Entropeas demonstrates potential human influences over natural forces, specifically biodegradation. Each tangerine is gutted, glued together, sprayed with a coat of UV paint, preventing it from decaying, then lit with UV bulbs to fill the space with artificial lighting. These works discuss the interplay between humans and the natural world, connecting with it on multiple sensory and physical levels that are invisible. These works also challenge spatial intervention as a curatorial concept by exhibiting biodegradable art that inhabits a space rather than just being displayed in it.
As a species, how do we want our future to look? We should not be passive. We should not abstain from contributing our minds to help the collective good. Inside us lie tissues exchanging information that have the power to foil entire ecosystems that alter the landscape of the future, but we also have the power to mitigate these effects.