A Short Synopsis of the Workings of Ignisfatuus

TheArtists’Statements section of Leonardo is intended to be a rapid publicationforum. Texts can be up to 750words in length with no illustrations, or up to 500 words in length with one black-and-whiteillustration. Artists ’Statements are acceptedforpublication upon recommendation o f any one member o f the Leonardo Editorial Board, who will thenforward them to the Main Editorial Office with his or her endmsement. A SHORT SYNOPSIS OF THE WORKINGS OF IGNISFATUUS Paul Etienne Lincoln, 54 GreatJones Street, New York, NY 10012,U.S.A. Received 23J u l ~ 1996.Acceptedfor publication by RogerR Malina. Zgnisfatuuswas an installation made specificallyfor a working Victorian Conservatory in Druids Hill Park, Baltimore, Maryland (Color Plate A No. l),and was operated by the Contemporary Museum over a period of three consecutive lunar cycles (3April to 2June 1996). Zgnisfatuusis an ephemeral work that uses the cycles of the moon to allow the delicate aural quality of early acoustical recordings made by the late Rosa Ponselle to trigger a cardiovascular system of arterial casts of human organs (planted under glass belljars) to evoke a process of endocrinology and the production and provocation of memory by the analogy of the idealized moment of a single bloom. Because these mechanisms hardly appear to be operational, these machines exist primarily in the viewer’s imagination -knowing that something might take place is more important than actually seeing it occur. The Conservatory became, in effect, a Palace of Memory. medieval Latin for “foolish fire.” It is a phosphorescent light seen hovering over swampy ground at night, possibly caused by spontaneous combustion of gases given off by rotting organic matter . The phrase is also used to describe something that deludes or misleadsan illusion. of separate components (Fig. 1);Rosa The term ignisfatuus comes from the Zgnisfatuusis comprised of a number W Fig. 1. Paul EtienneLincoln, Zgnkfatuus,installationwith phonograph,time clock,precision winch and circulatorysystembased on the lunar cycle, 1996.Diagram showing the componentsof the installation. Ponselle (a phonograph), a glass sphere with a lunar-cycled time clock that is attached to a precision winch mechanism; three separate glass vials with peristaltic pumps that fuel musical scores silkscreened in phosphorescent ink on mylar; the main reservoir (a glass bowl filled with purified water); a glass gland; three glass belljars, each containing an evacuated glass coil bearing a minuscule amount of rarefied air; and three arterial casts in polyester resin of a human heart, lungs and brain. All these components are interlinked by clear silicon tubing. Rosa Ponselle, the soprano, is the central figure and the most important. Rosa is personified by an extremely delicately built gramophone that is governed by the lunar cycle. She carries 27 Lucite discs that have vintage acoustical Ponselle recordings remastered onto their surface. The operas chosen are ones she excelled at during her long career : Bellini’s“Norma”,Spontini’s “La Vestale”and Verdi’s “LaForza del Destino”; all three are also poignant reminders of delusive hope. Rosa plays one disc at dusk each evening to the palm house. The volume, or the transmission of airwaves,is controlled by the phases of the moon. Her most audible performances are heard on a full moon. Suspended from the structural supports of the canopy in the palm house is a large glass sphere filled with rarefied air. It is connected by electrodes to a time clock that is mechanically adjusted to calculate the lunar cycle. Within this time clock is a precision winch mechanism that systematically lowers the three separate glassvials, 0 1997EAST LEONARDO, Vol. 30, No. 3, pp. 233-235, 1997 233 taking one complete lunar cycle for each vial to descend from the canopy to the base of the palm house. During this 27kday descent of each glass vial, purified water from the main reservoir is pumped by a gravitationally forced peristaltic pump mounted in the top of each vial. This water passes through two sheets of mylar film and eventually concentrates in the base of the vial. The mylar film has previously been silkscreened with a phosphorescent ink that appears invisible when dry. As the purified water passes over the surface of this film, it partially washes off the phosphorescent medium and transforms...