Looking for Daisy
Looking for Daisy pays tribute to Eugène Boudin and to cows, his models.
Looking for Daisy is an installation made up of aquarelles of Google cows* found on little country roads through Google Street View, and of a sensor in the form of a simple letter.
When you take the letter in your hand to read it, then you can hear far away the bell ringing at the neck of Daisy.
(*) Google Cow
A small breed, totally dependent on the size of the screen. The markings vary, with all shades of hues in a palette of 1024 colors.
This breed of cow is very difficult to find.
However, a fairly random method is to wander down little country roads.
Letter to Daisy
Paris, 27th July 2013
Dear Daisy,
Sometimes I look at Eugène Boudin's aquarelles and I ask myself if the age of slowing down time and spending hours painting cows, or watercoloring them, has returned.
Since the beginning of the Internet, my life has been overwhelmed by all this data in motion. So many things to read, so many things to see, so many things to think. Infinity before us, slapped against our own finitude.
I live to the beat of this machine, to the rhythm of its constantly moving data, to the rhythm of its packets transferred by light.
I'm exhausted… my head sometimes spins from this constant motion around me.
You, Daisy, I know that you walk slowly, that you lounge under the sun and tirelessly chew on thick grass.
Some time ago, I set out to search for you: Looking for Daisy!
I searched for you, a bit lazily, on the roads of Google Street View, this infinite space of photos of the world.
I found with great difficulty a few friends of yours, and took the time to paint them in aquarelles… but you, Daisy, I did not find. I continue to search for you in online contemplation… jumping from one little country road to another. My head is spinning from this quest. You should know: Is it true that to slow down and contemplate well, you must position yourself perpendicularly to the passing train? It seems to be about the magnetic field! As my luminous computer screen also emits a
magnetic field, I am moving around, trying to find the right posture! Daisy, when my hand stops caressing this letter, I can hear you, and I know that you exist. This gives me the strength to continue my search. Dear Daisy, I have not given up hope of finding you.
See you very soon
Albertine
2013 – Albertine Meunier
