January – April 2018
Mystic Seaport Maritime Museum, Mystic, CT
June – November 2018
Anchorage Museum, Anchorage, AK
Collaboration with John Grade, johngrade.com
Murmur is a collaboration between John Grade and Reilly Donovan that combines kinetic sculpture and a mixed-reality holographic experience, placing visitors within an Arctic landscape. The form is based on the exploration of Arctic landforms called pingos – ice mounds rising from permafrost soil that grow over centuries on the tundra, and then collapse, leaving scars on the land. They have historically served as landmarks and vantages for Inuit hunters as well as lookouts for polar bears, wolves and other predators. The sculpture is also informed by the fleeting movement of murmurations of arctic birds, contrasting the slow evolution of a pingo. John Grade designed and fabricated the kinetic sculpture. Reilly Donovan designed the holographic mixed-reality component of the project using Microsofts’ Hololens as well as a related tablet application.
