Our Long Now
Our Long Now
by Allison Maria Rodriguez
video stills from 2-channel video installation
includes two 45.9′ x 9.2′ screens on the museum’s sky bridge, 2024
Project Description & Artist Statement:
This work is a 2-channel large-scale video installation commissioned by Museum of Science, Boston for the 2024 Boston Youth Climate Summit. The work was created as a response to a survey project sponsored by the Museum of Science entitled “Young People and Climate Change: a National Survey of Middle and High School Students”. The work was designed for the museum’s sky bridge, featuring two 45.9-foot screens on a functioning architectural bridge connecting sections of the museum.
Our Long Now is a poetic and emotional response to the young people represented within the Museum of Science Youth Survey – it is a moving-image “letter” to these youth. The work is choreographed as a two-channel rumination on the nature of time designed specifically for the museum’s sky bridge. This piece explores an expanded and nonlinear conceptualization of time-thinking, supporting an intergenerational approach to the awareness of our individual, collective and interconnected role in the life of the earth. Imagery utilized predominantly represents cyclical earth time and deep cosmic time, making use of the nontraditional orientation of these particular screens and their literal functioning as a bridge between “here” and “there”, while evoking a path that is neither linear nor pre-determined. It is an homage to the agency of today’s youth (those in the survey), their connection to the planet and to previous generations, and our collective role as ancestors in solidarity with future citizens yet to be born.
commissioned by Museum of Science, Boston
curated by MASARY Studios
(professional installation documentation coming soon!)
Our Long Now
by Allison Maria Rodriguez
2-channel video installation at Museum of Science, Boston
includes two 45.9′ x 9.2′ screens on the museum’s sky bridge
image from “Our Long Now” installation preview/test day