works across many creative disciplines. She lives & works in Chicago. Goodnight Rock
UIC School of Design
It was announced that the one-cent coin is set to be retired and the U.S. Mint will cease production, revoking it of its exchange value. Even so, the penny will remain in our material world as a familiar fossil layered with multiple meanings and histories.
Goodnight Rock is a research publication and multimedia installation investigating the outmoded penny. Zooming in, out, and around this banal yet ubiquitous subject, the penny is cast as an object of poetic and political complexity. Valued at just $0.01, it sits at the bottom of the economic food chain. We know where the chain begins, but not where it ends. What can the humble one-cent tell us about broader systems of power in this country and beyond?
The research process was not simply collecting or illustrating a history, but an active engagement with the object itself. How does the penny feel, move, sound, transform? Starting with a large inventory, I looked at their symbols and wear through microscopes, recorded their various sounds (different pennies are different percentages of metals given the year), scanned their chemical changes using salt and vinegar, and captured their movements in the air. These experiments in turn shaped my writing and thinking, and served as imagery for the book and exhibition.
Given that the Year End Show was an exhibition and no one was going to stand there reading an 80 page thesis, there was an opportunity to bring people into the meaning and feeling behind the research with sound, light, and space. I composed a looping soundtrack and video installation that was projected on the wall alongside interactive stations.
