In the end I could not access the ceramics workshop at CSM and was unhappy with the results I was achieving painting at home. Following this, I sought new ways to combine data with the physical forms of the pipes themselves. I settled on using NFC tags as a means of embedding information into the clay itself. Viewers are invited to interact with the piece by scanning the pipes which each contain a link to a certain song.
I felt that music was a good choice of ‘data’ to use for the project due to its existence in a liminal space somewhere between material and immaterial in nature. Once more, music – whether in the form of ballads, playlists, or mixtapes – has played a part in our mourning traditions from ancient times until today.
I feel quite pleased with this iteration’s combination of vernacular and traditional forms, as well as its exploration of materiality in that liminal space between our digital and physical realities. Once more, I was happy to have introduced a sense of tradition to the work that eschewed institutionalism – favouring a pre-Christian Irish practice to that of the Catholicism.