Image: Daniel MILLER Mutual Light (installation view) 2023, recycled HDPE plastic, stainless steel, electronics. Courtesy of the artist.
This work is made from recycled plastic, stainless steel and electronic components and is fastened to the wall. A total of ten flowers are displayed across two adjoining walls. The work measures approximately 1.3 metres tall by 9.2 metres wide.
Made from recycled plastic that the artist has reclaimed from used plastic milk cartons each flower has petals moving out to a point from a circular centre. Each flower is approximately 80 centimetres in diameter. The flowers are illuminated from within and change in colour from green to blue, pink to purple and orange dependent on their interaction with audience in the space. The flowers are bunched together on the wall, in one uneven row, with six on one wall and four on the other.
A long-range infrared thermometer at the centre of each flower takes readings of visitor’s body temperature and four of the ten flowers also use distance sensors to precisely measure a visitor’s proximity to the sculpture. Variations in body heat, proximity, and air quality cause the sculptures to activate with different coloured lights, for varying intervals.
Through his practice, Daniel Miller uses robotics, electronics, sound, video, and light to investigate systems and ecologies in the contemporary landscape. In Mutual Light, Miller draws our attention to what often goes unseen, including plant/human relationships, air quality, plastic waste and climate change. In this project there is an observable relationship, where humans emit light in the infrared spectrum and the flowers respond by emitting light in the visible spectrum.