RIGOR BOREALIS
at
LAWRENCE TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
Summer 2016
“An exploration of large scale sensual atmospheres and environments where bodies, spaces, furniture and plants all contribute to new primal worlds.”
– Bittertang Farm, Lead Practitioners, Critical Practice 2016
Rigor Borealis is the culminating work of Zero-Craft Corp.’s Critical Practice Fellowship at Lawrence Technological University in Southfield, MI. Rigor Borealis physically represents an extinct natural phenomenon described in our fictional narrative; the decomposition of the Fortune Wing carcass (Wingyoa fortunae). The decomposition sparks an intense eruption of volatile gases, causing the animal’s internal organs to balloon themselves into towering, bioluminescent, membranous structures. People and animals alike would gather around the visual spectacle of Rigor Borealis and celebrate throughout the night amongst the glow of the rotting corpses. By day, buzzards would circle and peck at the bloated tissue until it collapsed into a crumpled heap of flesh.
Output from this 10-week project included sculpture, drawings, photographs, collage, construction documents, costume, performance, and a small zine-like publication.
Check out more of our workshop process here.
Project Collaborators: Ying Cai, Jon DePew II, Teah Fink, Kenneth Humberstone, Timothy Miller, Drew Mittig, Brandi Patterson, Jack Potterack.
