Collective Synergies of Thought by Yang Lim
The past two years of the pandemic have impacted people’s lives significantly and contributed to people’s sense of isolation and disconnection from each other. In this year’s The Works Art & Design Festival, two interactive installations on Churchill Square were a welcome addition in reigniting these bonds of communication and social interaction. In their own ways, Kristie Edwardsen’s Kindness and Connection (2022) and Kelly Andres’ Plantling a Promise (2022) both engaged with the act of communication as a means to make a difference by encouraging people to contribute their thoughts. Through people’s collective contributions, these inanimate installations came to life, generating a collective consciousness and shared sense of community that is envisaged by proactive and positive thinking in material form.
Consisting of a wooden see-through dome, Kelly Andres’ Plantling a Promise invited people to write a sincere promise to care for the environment on a square piece of coloured cloth, which was subsequently hung up in the dome for other people to see. In return, people received a sunflower seedling to care for and remind them of their promise. Over the course of the entire Works Festival, the number of coloured cloths hanging in the dome grew as more people contributed their promises in writing. The increasing proliferation of colourful cloths created a pleasing aesthetic effect that enlivened the dome and also evoked a collective sense of accomplishment. Previously an empty wooden structure, the dome came to life and slowly became the material embodiment of expressed collective thought for a better world.
Like Andres’ installation, Kristie Edwardsen’s Kindness & Connection (2022) produced a collective synergy of positive thinking through its accumulation of people’s thoughts. Two sides of Edwardsen’s box-shaped structure contains images and text from local students that demonstrate the numerous ways in which people can be kinder to each other. The other two sides of the installation consist of chalkboard panels where people would write their thoughts about what they are thankful for. As the chalkboards were cleared daily, the installation took on a dynamic quality as different people contributed their thoughts each day.
These two works constitute a source of inspiration for what people can achieve together and how a sense of community can be built. Although there is the traditional saying “Actions speak louder than words,” equally important are the positive thoughts that are necessary to provide the conditions for such actions to be realized.