_Brancha_ plays with the visual and functional similarities between bronchial structures and root/branch structures. It bridges aesthetic similarities between humans and trees, while pushing the bounds of empathetic healing between humans and nature, by not only drawing such similarities, but also pointing out the necessary twines of interconnectedness through interactivity. The lung-trees rest in a pulsating state, but display irritated shaking, and the ultimate shedding of their leaves when presented with a human viewer. The animation is rigged with a proximity sensor that toggles between resting and agitated states depending on the closeness of a human subject, warning the viewer to enjoy from afar.

The audio in the documentation video is a small clip of the ambient audio that played alongside _Brancha._ The audio featured a blend of bird sounds of species found near my childhood home, along with car traffic, airplane traffic, chainsaw sounds, and the sounds of my own whistles mimicking the bird sounds. There is a musical layer that plays intermittently throughout the audio piece that is sonified data of deforestation rates throughout the United States. 

www.jullianyoung.com/brancha

Brancha

_hyperVENT_ is an experimental video that contemplates the intimate link between breath and environmental wellness, particularly forest health. The video is encapsulated in the audio of my own breath in both restful and panicked states, with an audio visualization of that same breath strangling the frame of the video.

Hyperventilation is the act of expelling breath faster than taking it in. The process of hyperventilation happens in both asthma and panic attacks, for which I have experienced both. Asthma attacks induce panic, so even when the health crisis event is ongoing, it is hard to disentangle the two. Asthma, and my reflections on the symptoms and causes as they relate to climate change, and more specifically, deforestation, emerges more prominently as a sensation of panic. 

Panic as a sensorial response to climate change is the overarching premise of this piece. Panic as a feedback loop, in particular, is a theme I have hoped to emulate through this video artwork. When I say feedback loop, what I mean is that the current crisis around climate change induces a sensation of panic, especially for our youth. That climate change, in turn, renders conditions in which easy breathing becomes a commodity, both practically and mentally. The further degradation of the climate, especially in terms of deforestation and increasing carbon output, makes breathing especially difficult for vulnerable communities. And so the cycle goes on and on. Strangulation leads to panic, leads to asphyxiation, leads to panic, and on and on and on until there is intervention. 

Towards the later half of this time-based work, there is a tonal shift guiding us toward a familiar past, but the relief of exhalation brings forward a new reality. A crashing of waves signifies new beginnings. The water in the ocean has been carried vast distances, through space that is unimaginable, only to be crested at the earth’s shore. The transition is messy, and at times turbulent, but the washing of foamed salty sea onto sandy beaches brings a sense of climax and peace. 

The foggy lens through which we have been viewing this video work begins to open up. The constrained view of the audio visualization is reminiscent of losing consciousness, and the blurring creeping in of impending blackout from hypoxia. Or, from a different perspective, the pulsating rhythm of the breathing visualization might evoke the contracting of one’s trachea when gasping for air. Whichever lens with which the viewer perceives this video, the constraint of tightened panic is alleviated, but not eliminated. There is hope for a future of peace and harmony, but the results of which are yet to be seen.

www.jullianyoung.com/hypervent

hyperVENT

_Alight & Awaken_ is a video composition projection mapped onto a set of 8 ceramic objects. It contemplates the entangled relationships humans have with our environment around us; the harm that has arisen and the healing that must be brought forth. The series of ceramic objects is a 3D rendering of the sounds of trees being cut down. The objects were carved out of foam and cast in clay.

  
Throughout the video projection, swirling masses of color appear, and ambient sounds of echoing synths pulsate. Both the swirling objects and the audio are algorithmically responding to datasets of tree cover loss in the United States over the past twenty years. The data visualzations/sonifications serve to muddy the visuals and add chaos and confusion, inducing a sensation that is touched on throughout this body of work: panic. 

  
www.jullianyoung.com/alight-awaken 

Alight & Awaken

_Seasonal Pulse II_ premiered as a projection on the Daniels & Fisher Clock Tower as part of the Denver Theater District’s “NIGHTLIGHTS DENVER” initiative. This piece evokes the cyclical and ambient nature of the changing of the seasons, and a deeper human understanding of the constant cycle of life and death.

Seasonal Pulse II

Memory is at the root of our existence as life forms on this planet. The earth remembers its rhythms season after season, animals remember their ancestral homes with every yearly migration, and our species carries memories throughout centuries with generational inheritance, physical and metaphysical alike. These may come in the form of oral tradition, written word, or the passing on of heirlooms. Our species is not special in the sharing of memories, only the ways in which we do it. Our species, however, is unique in that we are rapidly eradicating other species from the planet we all share. Our habits are responsible for the record number of extinctions that have already happened, and those to come.

“Memory Vessels” seek to preserve the lives of endangered bird species that may not exist in the near future. These vessels are created by taking the bird call of a critically endangered bird species and transforming that sound into a visual representation, and generated into a 3D model printed in porcelain.

With the transformation of bird songs into three-dimensional physical objects, “Memory Vessels” aims to seal the essence of endangered birds into clay as their own heirlooms to be absorbed into humankind’s generational memory sharing.

These vessels are created by generating a 3D model out of audio visualizations of endangered bird species bird songs. The models are then printed on a ceramic 3D printer and attached to a wheel thrown base.

_Memory Vessels have been featured in CADAF Online 2020, re.riddle gallery’s project Falling Up as part of the Ars Electronica Fesitval 2020, and the 2020 Intersect Chicago virtual art fair._

  
www.jullianyoung.com/memory-vessels

Memory Vessels

_Resaerate_ is an experimental, data driven 3D animation that reflects on the human relationship to landscape in the aftermath of environmental catastrophe. On December 30th, 2021 the Marshall Fire ripped through Boulder county fueled by high winds and dry conditions, and took with it over 1,000 homes and structures. This video is inspired by resilience in the face of climate crisis and the reconfiguring of our connection to wind and air quality in particular.

  
The animation is comprised of over a dozen landscape scans collected on the front range of Colorado over the course of three seasons. Hovering over the landscapes is a three dimensional representation of indoor air quality provided by the Hannigan Air Quality and Technology Research Lab collected in the months after the Marshall Fire. The eventual splintering and collapse of the object opens up the view to a single ponderosa pine tree while the accompanying audio is a series of layered sonified data of wind speed and wind gust measurements taken on December 30th, 2021.

  
_Resaerate_ was presented at the Boulder Public Library’s Canyon Gallery as part of the “Cultivating Resilience” exhibition organized by Jullian Young, Amy Hoagland, and Summer King, was on view at Meow Wolf Convergence Station in Denver, Colorado, and was included in the 2024 Ars Electronica “Science and Data Visualization” program in Linz, Austria.

Resaerate

Interdeviation visualizes a world where humans, technology, and nature become inextricably merged. The video blends live action footage taken from the environments surrounding the artist’s home as well as images and footage of the artist herself. This footage was used as reference within generative AI to cultivate new and imagined landscapes as well as speculative human-plant hybrid organisms. 

  
Throughout the experimental video, the recognizable landscapes begin to fragment and evolve, while the environmental soundscape shifts and distorts from grounded and real, to imaginary and ethereal. Layered on top of the environmental audio, the humanoid subjects read out loud the very prompts that altered or generated their image – prompts created with the artist’s ideas filtered through chatGPT, cultivating a closed system of collaboration between artist and machine.

Interdeviation

_Your New Frontier_ is an experimental video visualizing every kilogram of plastic waste the United States exports abroad. The gossamer object floats in space and grows at a glacial pace, its form shifting with each passing second. The accompanying audio is sonified numerical values from the same dataset layered on top of excerpts of two films on plastic production from the mid 20th century.

Add

Jullian Young

Opportunities

For Artists

ArtConnect

Support