A Moment

A Moment investigates our disconnect from nature due to technology. Just ask yourself: “When was the last time you went on a walk without your phone and really observed nature and all that it has to offer?” A Moment invites the viewer to be immersed in a strange forest scene. As the leaves fall toward the ground and the butterflies descend around the uprooted trunk, the color fades from vibrant hues to colorless monochromes. This displays a connection to something lost - not quite there, yet somewhat still visible. Humanity tends to augment the natural world digitally, while blindly overlooking how nature is fading away in front of us as we make our posts. These glass castings of the leaves and butterflies may seem cast from their real forms. However, upon closer inspection, these butterflies and leaves are cast from 3D printed models sculpted digitally, blurring what we think is natural and what is artificial. Today, our technology is more than capable of helping our world and improving the natural environment. Instead, we are trying to augment nature for our own benefit.

Through simply programming our phone cameras to enhance natural colors to something more highly contrasted, the consumption of natural images augments what we expect from nature. This results in our minds preferring to look through a glass screen to see what we want to see rather than what's right in front of us. It is time that we take a moment and start integrating ourselves back into nature. Nature has so much to offer and reveal if you allow nature to know you.

A Moment's
Short Story

When was the last time you took a walk through the woods without your phone? Imagine, you are walking through the woods, no technology, no selfies, just the ambient sounds and you. As you start exploring the woods, you notice the organic flow everything has. You notice the leaves blowing in the wind. A small butterfly flutters past flying towards a group of flowers blooming from the cluttered forest floor. There is no explanation of how or why these flowers bloomed in this spot, but they are growing and thriving. You walk over to them and kneel and notice a butterfly rolling out its proboscis in amazement - honey bees shaking around the flowers collecting pollen – you hear the leaves rustling and you begin to look up at the trees - Oh? Wait, something is shaking in your pocket! It’s your phone! You pull out your phone and notice you are getting a text from your friend. You immediately stand up and start walking as you fill your friend in on the day and you make evening plans. You notice the ground feels different underneath your feet and put your phone away to look down and you notice you trampled flowers. As you look around you see some beautiful flowers still standing, and you pull your phone back out. You take a photo, open your gallery and your phone automatically applies the enhancements integrated into its code. You now have this beautiful bright, cheery, colorful photograph of the few flowers left growing and you decide to send it to your friend. They quickly reply and ask where you are and if you could pick some flowers for them to put in their house for dinner. You continue the conversation over the phone discussing dinner plans as you pick the rest of the flowers then walk back to the car. As you approach the car you hang up with your friend and open the door, tossing flowers into the passenger seat. As you toss the flowers you notice a piece of a butterfly wing drifting down into your seat. It must have been caught up as you were rapidly picking the flowers while on the phone with your friend.

The forest has so much to offer and reveal if you take a moment to let nature know you. As a species, humans today have become really integrated with our technology and constantly improving it to make our lives easier. This ease has led us to become disconnected from the natural world that surrounds us every day. It is time that we start integrating ourselves back into nature.

The Process

Cody worked on his BFA Exhibition show for his senior year in order to receive his bachelor's degree. He choose to combine both of his passions for digital art and glass by 3D modeling natural objects. He then resin printed the leaves and butterflies and created silicon rubber molds. These molds then allowed him to pour wax into these molds to replicate them. Then he manipulated and individualize each replica to make it, its own. Next he created a plaster mold around the wax casts and cast it with glass to capture all the details. Lastly, he divested them and cold-worked and lacquered them to complete the exhibition.