Ghost Nets: The Medicine Wheel Garden

rial, generated real-time melodic accompaniment , played back digitally recorded sounds and performed additional sound synthesis. It also displayed a graphic cue sheet and provided timing cues for me during the performance. SEMINAL CHRONO-SCHEMA: AN ELECTRO-KINETIC WORK FOR COMPUTER SCREEN AND PRINTOUT Stephen Moore, #598, 790 North Marine Dr., Tumon, Guam 96911 This work in progress, Seminal ChronoSchema , is a compilation of the artists, artworks and art events that have shaped the course of art from the middle ages to the present. By marking seminal moments within the larger continuum and by separately identifying artist, artwork and content/intent, we hope to present this information from a unique perspective and to provide a personal view of art history. 96 Words On Works Fig. 5. Aviva Ralunani, detail of The Medicine Wheel Garden with rocks in the distance, 1991. This environmental work on Vinalhaven Island, off the coast of Maine, is part of the Ghost Nets project. Intended to display the data in literal as well as graphic formats, Seminal Chrono-Schema will exist both as an electronic database and a limitededition artwork, while at the same time functioning on two distinct levels: (1) The compiled information, or database, is the basis for a schematic /analytic view of Western art, which will appear as a summary or tabulation. (2) This tabulation, in turn, becomes the structure for a strictly visual presentation of the sorted data-a kinetic image to be viewed, not read. In its electronic state, the work will begin with tabulation and, as it scrolls across the screen, will change from a literal to a graphic form. The compiled data will become a 'visual score', the arrangement or composition being determined by the text of the tabulation. The 'hardcopy' edition , comprised of more than 100 color index cards, with a computer disk for on-screen viewing of the work, will be bound into a handcrafted limited-edition artwork. GHOST NETS: THE MEDICINE WHEEL GARDEN Aviva Rahmani, 120 Hudson St., New York, NY, 10013, U.SA Box 692, Frog Hollow, Vinalhaven Island, ME 04863, U.SA We enter the medicine wheel tofind our places on the wheel ojlife and our relationship with all ojlife, to find hidden reservoirs ojgentle strength within ourselves andfind new ways ojwalking in harmony on the earth. -Grandfather Thunder Cloud, Elder of the Cherokee Nation My work has consistently documented social questions and the recovery process since the mid-1960s. Ghost Nets (1991-2000) is about the trap of the familiar. The name of the project derives from the invisible monofilament fishing gill nets that get lost in the ocean, strip-mining all sea life. The first 3 years of this work address the problem of exhausting ocean resources. The Medicine Wheel is a Native American ceremony of teaching and blessing, the purpose of which is to heal the earth and all who enter the ceremony. Because earth care is symbiotic with the sea, the air and human survival, building a Medicine Wheel Garden (Phase 1 of the Ghost Nets project ) is about restoring healing energy to people and land. Construction of the Garden (Fig. 5) is on a site that includes a promontory of manmade land that extends from a remote island off Maine. I purchased this parcel ofland in 1990, in common with a locallobstering family, part of the economically threatened fishing culture of the island. The partnership involves an overlapping work area (for commercial lobstering, social gathering, artmaking), my modest home and a sawmill in which I am producing seascape paintings in homage to the ocean. Preparation of the Medicine Wheel Garden began with rebuilding the soil and reintroducing primarily indigenous trees and shrubs (such as Pin Oak, Norway Maple, Chinese Chestnut and Siberian Elm), interspersed with local granite boulders. In a series of ceremonies, the sacred rocks were gathered under the guidance of Elder Ricki Soaring Dove. The healing rituals were initiated by Grandfather Thunder Cloud, Elder of the Cherokee Nation, who conducted a traditional Medicine Wheel ceremony on 11 August 1991 in the Garden. The living space in the Medicine Wheel Garden has been designed in collaboration with architect Steve Robinson , author of TheEnergy Efficient Home. The house will...