Spellbreaker (breath engine): An Interactive Art System
Spellbreaker (breath engine) is an interactive art system using black walnut ink as a data visualization for carbon dioxide. It is the culmination of work and research for a 2017 TechHub Student Project Grant.
Spellbreaker (breath engine) aims to engage viewers outside of a gallery setting. Exhibiting at events such as the Chadwick Arboretum and Learning Gardens Arboblitz Tree Planting, and The STEAM Factory's Franklinton Friday focused on Food and Sustainability were perfect opportunities to interact with a broad audience. Participants speak into a handblown glass globe that has a carbon dioxide sensor affixed to the opposite end. When the CO2 of the viewers' breath is detected, the sensor triggers a peristaltic pump which begins releasing black walnut ink which will flow through a tube, down an exhaust pipe and into a carved wooden basin. The viewer is then invited to take an exhibition booklet with more information about the project onto which they capture a drip as record of their breath.
Jacklyn Brickman is a visual artist whose work aims to understand and explore the connections human bodies have to the environment with a focus on breathing and air quality. Brickman’s work encompasses installation, sculpture, and video with special interest in experience and collaboration. Born in Michigan, Brickman is currently in her second of a three year MFA program at The Ohio State University. She holds a BFA with honors from College for Creative Studies in Detroit, MI. In 2003 she spent a semester abroad at Instituto Allende, San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, MX followed by a month of traveling via bus and hammock through southern Mexico. She has been awarded Fellowships by the Jentel Foundation (2007), Popp's Packing (via the National Endowment for the Arts and the Erb Family Foundation) (2016), Connecting Heritage Fellowship and Residency through the Maryland Milestones/ Anacostia Trails Heritage Area and the Pyramid Atlantic Art Center (2016), TechHub OSU Student Project Grant (2017), and was a National Academy of Sciences Sackler Student Symposium Fellow (2018). She has co-curated exhibitions at Butter Projects in Royal Oak, MI (2010-2013). Other endeavors that inform Brickman’s practice include becoming a Realtor (2007), Volunteer Frog and Toad Surveyor, Babywearing Educator, and Mother. She has exhibited domestically, in Canada and Slovenia.