Having taken to the water in an experiment in sustainability with The Waterpod in 2009, Mary Mattingly is still focused on how we can respond to rising sea levels, this time by testing the limits of living on land. Within Condensations of the Social, Mattingly will present a living prototype for Flock House, an airborne habitat that imagines, projects, and adds another level onto the city’s skyline. Built on materials that reference scaffolding, a construction material associated with changing cities, Flock House augments city space, air space, and questions air rights and functions as an observation deck with a view of weather systems and avian migration. Flock House is a collaboration with Kadar Brock and Stephanie Gonzalez-Turner, Ian Daniel, ecoarttech, Kim Holleman, Paul Lloyd Sargent, and Tressie Word.
Responding to Mary's Mattingly's prescient hypothesis that as water levels rise, we will have to look upward towards the sky for our future modes of living, I have chosen to illustrate a cresting wave following the contour of the Flock House structure. This gestural rendition is an ongoing performance that adds to the rising wave over the course of the week of July 10-17 2010. This three dimensional topography will be sculpted and installed over time showing us a future with the rising tides to come. The material will be used to render this watery terrain, but will remain functionally transparent at the onset and will be filled in with various materials over time, representing the progression of the rising tides, while creating protection from it.