Bart Woodstrup’s current work investigates the relationship between environmental issues and new technology, specifically, the cultural integration of these issues and technologies. and manifests as traditional musical composition, real-time interactive audio/video performance, multimedia installation and networked experience.

Writes Woodstrup, "In the great Asian Tsunami of 2004 many animals knew of the impending danger. They were said to pos- sess a sixth sense which warned them of the coming calamity that sent them searching for higher ground. Any trace that humans’ possess this sense is revealed in folklore:

'Red sky at night, sailor’s delight; red sky in the morning, sailor take warning.'

Our electronic systems of gathering environmental information are not that different from the weath- ercocks and Cape Cod glasses of yester-year – only more precise. However, our increasing reliance on electronic sensation is dulling the remnants of our “sixth sense.”

This folklore, based on observation and experience, is in essence, a dialogue with nature. It is a conversa- tion in which we are losing fluency, perhaps even affinity for. However, the need to understand and adapt to the changing weather of our world has never been greater.

“Gathering Lore” uses real-time sensor data from a locally installed weather station to interface with a database of imagery, iconography, and text that acts as a bridge between technology and historical, cultural folklore and myth.

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