Matter & Matrix (Belongil Creek)

Matter and Matrix (Belongil Creek) is a continuation of Manning’s Matter and Matrix series that plays on physical/virtual and digital/analogue dichotomies by re-imagining a natural landscape with physical objects, data, and technology. Interactions between flat screen monitors and mirrors recreate the glitches and pixel collage landscapes of virtual maps like Google Earth. This multi-channel video installation was recorded along Belongil Creek near Byron Bay. The varied hues come from the Tea Trees that line the lake that seep into the water. Matter and Matrix draws from a quote by scientist Albert Szent-Györgyi on the qualities and embodiments of water:

‘Water is life's matter and matrix, mother and medium. There is no life without water. Life could leave the ocean when it learned to grow a skin, a bag in which to take the water with it. We are still living in water, having water now inside’1

Matter and Matrix (Belongil Creek) dislocates the footage into its coloured forms while reflecting, building, and collaging its natural qualities. The matrix of mirrors placed in a grid between the televisions at different scales copy, multiply, and ricochet the imagery around the installation. The natural crystalline forms of water flow and retract in a digital yet mirrored analogue landscape — water flows towards and away from itself in uncanny movements, creating a new illogical waterscape.

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1. Szent-Györgyi, Albert. "Biology and Pathology of Water." Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 14, no. 2 (1971): 23s9-249.