Buoy Project
Photos by Michelle Cornejo, displayed at STEAM 2017 exhibition at UWF.
Buoy displayed with three photographs and my statement, as follows:
"I sometimes catch myself daydreaming about the last couple of adventures that this buoy traversed in the coastal waters of Massachusetts, my home state, and the place where this idea was first conceptualized. As a noun, a buoy is an anchored float serving as a navigation mark, to identify hazards, or for mooring. As a verb, it keeps someone or something afloat.
I'm exploring the idea of a buoy acting as a stabilizing, positive force in a shifting sea of uncertainty and constant change. In finding my own personal stability through meditation, one method of keeping myself grounded involves walking along the ocean edge gathering treasures, or, in some cases, trash. I’ve transformed the Styrofoam and plastic waste that I’ve collected from environmentally careless consumers into the core of this floating object.
Buoys are also used to observe and record changes in the aquatic environment in conjunction with technology. I’m excited by the potential of combining the methods of data-logging with the practices of art-making, and how their intersection promotes a deeper level of understanding of both actions."