THE
INVESTIGATION
INTO
THE
ORGANIC
UTILITY
POLE
gilad dor
(This video is the presentation of this thesis)
The Investigation Into the Organic Utility Pole is Gilad Dor’s thesis for his Master’s Degree at NYU Tisch’s Interactive Telecommunications Program.
A research-based collection of experiments with the utility pole’s systems and narratives; told through a sensory ethnographic lens; and majorly coming together in the forms of experimental documentary and a printed Field Guide; along with photography, audio experiments, digital exploration, physical object creation.
The ubiquitous generic form of the utility pole that is present throughout the US lacks individuality, and through telling the story of the pole at large an identity for each and every pole can be found.
I am particularly concerned with the trees abduction from their original habitats. Each pole was once a living organism that lived among the natural network of it’s forest; only to be abducted and coalesed into the basis of a new human-centered root system for the former-trees.
The trees that are used for utility poles have a life-expectancy that can range from 350-600 years, quite possibly more; while the pole, after its transformation, is given a lifespan of about 60 years, a massive difference from its original possible lifespan; unnatural short term predictability over natural unpredictability.
I aspire to breath a type of life back into poles; through recognizing that they, having once been alive, are now bearing witness to so much beyond their lifespan.
I feel that there are stories to tell around the pole, and in turn telling the story of the pole; the story of human needs defining the utility of a living organism.
We must think of all lived things with the same amount of respect we have for human beings.
A research-based collection of experiments with the utility pole’s systems and narratives; told through a sensory ethnographic lens; and majorly coming together in the forms of experimental documentary and a printed Field Guide; along with photography, audio experiments, digital exploration, physical object creation.
Motivations & Intentions
The ubiquitous generic form of the utility pole that is present throughout the US lacks individuality, and through telling the story of the pole at large an identity for each and every pole can be found.
I am particularly concerned with the trees abduction from their original habitats. Each pole was once a living organism that lived among the natural network of it’s forest; only to be abducted and coalesed into the basis of a new human-centered root system for the former-trees.
The trees that are used for utility poles have a life-expectancy that can range from 350-600 years, quite possibly more; while the pole, after its transformation, is given a lifespan of about 60 years, a massive difference from its original possible lifespan; unnatural short term predictability over natural unpredictability.
I aspire to breath a type of life back into poles; through recognizing that they, having once been alive, are now bearing witness to so much beyond their lifespan.
I feel that there are stories to tell around the pole, and in turn telling the story of the pole; the story of human needs defining the utility of a living organism.
We must think of all lived things with the same amount of respect we have for human beings.
Outcomes & Experiments
A FIELD GUIDE TO THE ORGANIC UTILITY POLE
This field guide is an explainer on the organic utility pole. Providing reading on the history of the different systems that have grown on the pole since it was first introduced in the mid-1800s; as well as the ways poles can be identified through the tags and branding that live on the pole, the different types of trees that are used as poles, the process from which a tree is transformed into a pole.
Read more
This field guide is an explainer on the organic utility pole. Providing reading on the history of the different systems that have grown on the pole since it was first introduced in the mid-1800s; as well as the ways poles can be identified through the tags and branding that live on the pole, the different types of trees that are used as poles, the process from which a tree is transformed into a pole.
Read more
APR 2020
An Aid For Active Observation
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An Aid For Active Observation
POLE LISTENING
A series of experimental documentary pieces where I interrogate the way poles interpret their ecosystems
Watch here
A series of experimental documentary pieces where I interrogate the way poles interpret their ecosystems
Watch here
FEB 2020
Experimental Documentary
Experimental Documentary
︎
THREE STEPS AWAY
A daily practice.
For a month I went on searches for Organic Poles in Google Streetview. Being able to immediately transport yourself all over the country and with nearly every drop being in view of a pole illuminates their ubiquitous form and reoccurring materiality.
Read more
A daily practice.
For a month I went on searches for Organic Poles in Google Streetview. Being able to immediately transport yourself all over the country and with nearly every drop being in view of a pole illuminates their ubiquitous form and reoccurring materiality.
Read more
MAR 2020
Digital Exploration
Digital Exploration
︎
CARDBOARD DEVICES
Where this investigation began.
These are cardboard devices that use speculative & absurdist strategies to examine the strange systems that live on the pole.
Read more
Where this investigation began.
These are cardboard devices that use speculative & absurdist strategies to examine the strange systems that live on the pole.
Read more
FALL 2019
Physical Object Creation
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Physical Object Creation
Upcoming & Unresolved
LABOR SYSTEMS
Focusing on three of the stages of the pole’s time and three people a part of that process; the forester, the millworker, and the lineman.
Focusing on three of the stages of the pole’s time and three people a part of that process; the forester, the millworker, and the lineman.
Upcoming
Multi-Medium Documentary
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Multi-Medium Documentary
POETIC INTERFACE
Site specific installation of a telephone that lives on a pole; which inside that phone is the story of that pole.
Site specific installation of a telephone that lives on a pole; which inside that phone is the story of that pole.
Upcoming
Installation
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Installation
The Investigation Into the Organic Utility Pole is Gilad Dor’s thesis for his Master’s Degree at NYU Tisch’s Interactive Telecommunications Program.
A research-based collection of experiments with the utility pole’s systems and narratives;
told through a sensory ethnographic lens; and majorly coming together in the forms of experimental documentary and a printed Field Guide; along with photography, audio experiments, digital exploration, physical object creation.
Reference
Including the works, writings, research, publications, and more of the following:
Ingrid Burrington
Shannon Mattern
Tega Brain
James Schwoch
Anna Tsing
Eula Biss
Sensory Ethnography Lab
Ernst Karel
David Dunn
Chris Woebken
Shannon Mattern
Tega Brain
James Schwoch
Anna Tsing
Eula Biss
Sensory Ethnography Lab
Ernst Karel
David Dunn
Chris Woebken
Mimi Onuoha
Marina Zurkow
Suzanne Simard
Peter Wohlleban
Center for Land Use Interpretation
Natalie Jeremijenko
Dunne + Raby
Robert Smithson
Tom Sachs
And many others
Marina Zurkow
Suzanne Simard
Peter Wohlleban
Center for Land Use Interpretation
Natalie Jeremijenko
Dunne + Raby
Robert Smithson
Tom Sachs
And many others