A Minor Miracle consists of 13 letters shaped from salvaged plywood boards, 3500 LEDs, and 35 solar panels.
Battery packs within solar the panels are charged throughout the day and as daylight fades the LEDs light up to illuminate the text. The duration of the illumination is dependent on the amount of sunlight that has charged the solar panels during the day. If there has been plenty of sunlight, then the lights work well and the letters can be clearly seen at night. However, if it has not been sunny, then the lights begin to fail and the text becomes unreadable. The failing of the text, its subsequent illegibility demonstrably reveals the contingencies of the technologies used and also appears to signify the failure of the intentions of the work.
The work was made during a residency in Miterdale Forest, Cumbria, UK, as part of the ‘Good Life’, a project devised by artists Derek Tyman and Emma Rushton in collaboration with Lanternhouse, Ulverston, UK. The location of the residency was a reconstruction of Thoreau’s cabin built by Tyman and Rushton and situated in the heart of Miterdale Forest. Using the writing of 19th Century American philosopher and abolitionist Henry David Thoreau, they invited artists, activists, writers, musicians and others to respond to his ideas on self-sufficiency, politics and nature.
 |
| Reconstructed cabin, Derek Tyman and Emma Rushton |
Solo Drum Solo Drum Solo - An unspecified number of drummers playing solos outdoors in the woods.
*ghk
