2005

Commissioned by Art in General, New York, and Bunkier Sztuki Contemporary Art Center, Krakow, Poland. Curated by Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy and Maria Anna Potocka.

The Institute for Higher Listening is a moving platform for the exchange of ideas. It takes a different form every time it changes location. It uses methods of propaganda, advertising and scientific research to magnify the crossing points of biological evolution, human history, and entropy.

The first institute was in Krakow, Poland. It took the form of a bird-watching cabin on the roof of the Bunkier Sztuki Contemporary Art Center. I collaborated with Dr Kazimierz Walasz, one of Poland’s foremost ornithologists, to organize the environment for bird observing.

‘Don’t fight forces, use them’ Buckminster Fuller

At The Institute for Higher Listening, I worked with Professor Pyotr Bozik, of the Department of Industrial Design at Krakow’s Art Academy, to create the Solar Wok, while watching birds living in the adjacent 300-year-old horse chestnut tree.

The Solar Wok is a vacuum-formed transparent lid that turns 1.5 liters of water into a lens, and a traditional Chinese wok into a solar cooking device. I did a series of performances at tourist sites using the New Orator Kiosk in order to introduce the Solar Wok to citizens and tourists.

Materials & Actions: Bird observation cabin, design of Solar Wok, New Orator Kiosk, wok demonstrations, sketchbooks, photographs.

Location: The roof of Bunkier Sztuki Contemporary Art Center, and Rynok Glowny, Krakow’s main square.