Chrysalis is an installation of a series of projection sculptures based on the beautiful nests of tent caterpillars. The sculptures are constructed of branches and agricultural netting. Video imagery using creative code to manipulate footage of movement artists, as well as scientific imagery, draw from the replicating forms of nature (Generativity) to illuminate the Chrysalises. D'Agostino used Isadora for the creative coding and MadMapper to projection map the video onto the Chrysalises' sculptural screens. Video projections mapped onto layered scrim in the sculptures further multiply the imagery beyond the digital manipulations made possible by Isadora and MadMapper. Additional objects compliment the video sculptures.
One of my earliest memories is of holding a tent caterpillar in my hand at around age three and asking my mother if caterpillars have a soul. I was fascinated by their gorgeous nests and by the process of transformation unfolding inside them. Chrysalis is a deep dive into answering the broader question contained within my childhood sense of marvel, and an examination of the strange sacredness of living things. It also revels in how all things are intertwined and hopes to expose the idea of singularity as a paradox. Seventy years after that original question I'm also fascinated by the possibility of emerging from one state of being into another. Or of merging, if emerging is not what's next.