Tracy Hicks

Research Fellowship Codification

most recent animated study

1880 to 1991 or 111 years

The field notes, locality data, tags, labels of various forms, floating inside and taped outside jars, on boxes and on shelves, mirrored on computer screens graphed in spreadsheet form, codification forms a second skin of collection.

Once collected the second skin of codification provides forms for containing, sorting and ultimately seeing a unique character of each individual element within a collection --as well as each individual element's relationship to the mass. So this research and these images collected explore correlations of both physical and conceptual skin within the Smithsonian collections.

Collections wrap bare objects with cultural identity.

Seen in the right light this coded documentation so dispassionate in character becomes the sensual equivalent of gently carassing the most sensitive skin of cultural artifacts. Seen in the wrong light cultural interpretation is no light matter.

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Smithsonian Fellowship abstract

Animated studies/visual research from Smithsonian Natural History Collections
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Repetition is a basic element of collection.