The Crying Post Project: A Multi-Part, Multi-Media Artwork to Memorialize Global Sites of Pain

The author describes The Crying Post Project, an artwork consisting primarily of wood staffs with solar-powered Òcry generatorsÓ placed at different sites throughout the globe, at locations of environmental and/or social damage. Its two other components include an interactive 3D web site, which has been created as an alternative, data-rich venue for the project, and a series of digitally created photographic prints designed to capture the artistÕs emotional response to the sites. The artist also discusses how this artwork has been inspired by his research on the crosscultural symbolism of trees, the indigenous Australian worldview, mapping theory and the relationship between language extinction and environmental destruction.