The Environment Machine Shop - Cluster Festival 2024
Michael Lucenkiw
The Environment Machine Shop is presented by Cluster Festival and Video Pool Media Arts Centre.
The Environment Machine Shop explores our relationships with the rivers of Winnipeg by examining six water samples taken from sites along the Red, Assiniboine and Seine rivers using a collection of DIY tools. The artworks use water pumps, LEDs, lenses, audio samples and sounds that encourage you to reimagine your relationship with Winnipeg’s rivers - an important ecosystem that’s often mistreated.
The water samples are studied using non-western normative techniques such as projecting water samples on the ceiling and using contact microphones to listen to water flow. You are encouraged to turn knobs, press buttons and interact with many of the Victorian-era inspired science instruments which are built and re-interpreted in a hacker/maker style using Arduinos, copper piping, and other found and reused materials to engage with Red River water samples.
Explore the Machine Shop to see water samples from the Red, Assiniboine and Seine Rivers in a playful and explorative way. This is an invitation to make an empathetic connection with our rivers.
About the Artist
Michael Lucenkiw
Michael is a transdisciplinary artist, maker and researcher primarily investigating ways in which citizen science, tinkering, hacking and critical making can be used to create stronger relationships with our environment. He works with a variety of mediums including software coding, hardware design, and installations. Through these means, he advocates for action toward connecting people with less empowered stakeholders in the environment, such as plants and water. This work challenges western-normative scientific investigation methods and is a call to action that brings visibility to under-represented entities, living and nonliving. Michael is pursuing a PhD at the University of Manitoba in Architecture, focusing on DIY biomaterial production.