The Athena Dataset

The Athena dataset is the sound of bells ringing through a thick gray-green fog, an escape from the visual fields, an obliteration of hierarchy. It strips the tower down to its eight triangles and an octagon; elements of construction and deconstruction; a pile of wood; tree trunks; cells; atoms. It is a series of remixes, iterations, constructions, and deconstructions. It reveres imagination, the continuous ticking of time, explosion, assembly, the remix, the invasive, the unwanted, the alien, and chaos. It is wispy time; moments strung together by fragile and unreliable webs of memory. It is a refuge and desire for the unnamed, the unidentified, the unknown, the primordial, the rotting, the ruin, the gorgeous decay of a lived life. It examines toppling towers while it is a tower that is toppling. Named for the warrior goddess Athena who embodies wisdom, craft, courage, and strength, the Athena Dataset is a myth, a series of fossils, a timeline of maps anticipating a future, and a romantic dance of science fiction.  

Athena Data Set Sample 2022 digital print on paper 42″ x 79″ Photo credit: Bailey Beltramo

Work began with the Athena Dataset in 2018. The most recent showing of the work was this past March in the exhibition Liquid Architectures and Leaky Territories. Work with the dataset was fast and furious over the past four years, and the documentation needs organization; this summer, I’m committed to making the work more accessible and sharable.


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