Mollye Bendell

Work samples

Outgrown

Video documentation of Outgrown.
Wander/Wonder

Footage from Wander/Wonder, two separate but connected experiences: Wander, a walkable virtual street map of Baltimore City with all buildings removed except for psychic reader storefronts, and Wonder, a zero-gravity digital astral plane experienced as a virtual reality environment.
Recorder

Recorder gestures toward the ephemerality of information by recording audio into sand.
IMG_3663.JPG

An ongoing series of sculptural radios in which the weather affects the output of the radio. Over time, these works have evolved into crystal radios, which require no external power supply. With a high resistance earphone, one can hear radio transmissions powered entirely through the signals themselves. The radios are sensitive to changes in their environment. Listeners are welcome to gently handle the pieces to change the sound.

About Mollye

Baltimore City

Mollye Bendell is an interdisciplinary artist with a focus in electronic and digital media. She has created radio sculptures as a resident of Wave Farm, and developed augmented and virtual reality projects as a resident of Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center and the Tides Institute and Museum of Art. She is also a founding member of media arts collective strikeWare, which creates experiences grounded in our collective history, often using new technologies to emphasize the nowness of that… more

View Mollye's Resume

Wander/Wonder

Wander/Wonder explores the nature of speculation and our changing relationship with physicality through two separate but connected experiences: Wander, a walkable virtual street map of Baltimore City with all buildings removed except for psychic reader storefronts, and Wonder, a zero-gravity digital astral plane experienced as a virtual reality environment.

While the interactor flies through the Wonder side via an Oculus Rift VR headset, the Wander side is projected on a screen for spectators to view. The interactor uses a custom crystal ball controller to navigate both environments simultaneously - one person guides the experiences of spectators in Wander while fully immersed in the VR environment of Wonder.

Wander/Wonder

Footage from Wander/Wonder, two separate but connected experiences: Wander, a walkable virtual street map of Baltimore City with all buildings removed except for psychic reader storefronts, and Wonder, a zero-gravity digital astral plane experienced as a virtual reality environment.
Wonder

Wander/Wonder explores the nature of speculation and our changing relationship with physicality through two separate but connected experiences: Wander, a walkable virtual street map of Baltimore City with all buildings removed except for psychic reader storefronts, and Wonder, a zero-gravity digital astral plane experienced as a virtual reality environment.
Wonder
Wonder
Wonder
Wander
Wander
Wander/Wonder - Mockup

Outgrown

Outgrown is a fantasy and a eulogy for weeds. Using augmented reality, this piece resurrects the weeds that once grew in a space and envisions a parallel world in which they now thrive. An interactant looks through one of the provided tablets at each glowing panel and sees the spirits of plants rise up to claim back a space of their own.

Outgrown

Video documentation of Outgrown.
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Installation view at Currents New Media Festival. This iteration focuses on plants native to Santa Fe, NM. 2022.
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Augmented reality view at Currents New Media Festival. This iteration focuses on plants native to Santa Fe, NM. 2022.

sketch for Sleepers

An attempt to preserve people through digital masks molded around images from video chats. This piece was begun during quarantine around my fear that the last time I might see my loved ones would be on a video call. The footage is a recording of a simulation built in a realtime rendering engine.

sketch for Sleepers

Invisible Ink

Artist’s book. Color risoprints, augmented reality application.

Invisible Ink
Invisible Ink (page from book)
Invisible Ink (augmented reality screenshot)

Recorder

Recorder gestures toward the ephemerality of information by recording sound into sand. Similar to a record player, the machine has a turntable and a needle. However, record players work by interpreting sound waves - users hear audio based on the vibration of the needle in the grooves of a record. Recorder inverts this functionality by linking the needle to a speaker resonator. A very shallow sandbox acts as a turntable as the resonator wobbles the needle, recording sound waves into the sand.

Recorder

Talking into the mic vibrates the needle of this homemade record player, drawing sound waves into the sand.
Recorder

Recorder gestures toward the ephemerality of information by recording audio into sand.
Recorder - 2
Recorder -5
Recorder - 4

Recorder - 4
Recorder - 3

Recorder - speaker assembly

Whethervanes

An ongoing series of sculptural radios in which the weather affects the output of the radio. Over time, these works have evolved into crystal radios, which require no external power supply. With a high resistance earphone, one can hear radio transmissions powered entirely through the signals themselves.⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ The radios are sensitive to changes in their environment. Listeners are welcome to gently handle the pieces to change the sound.

Whethervanes
Whethervanes
Whethervanes
Whethervanes

MollyeNet

MollyeNet uses specialized hardware to implement a public access WiFi network onto art museum property. MollyeNet has exhibited successfully at MoMA NYC and the Baltimore Museum of Art.

MollyeNet

MollyeNet is a WiFi network that occupies space as an artwork in an art museum. At core, MollyeNet is about longing and visibility, not subverting cultural gatekeepers. But both are acceptable. MollyeNet has successfully exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art and the New York City Museum of Modern Art. Visitors attempting to access WiFi on their phones see this network alongside other WiFi networks in the museum.
MollyeNet Captive Portal

A captive portal is the page you often see prompting you to agree to Terms and Conditions before using a guest WiFi network. The text and the WiFI network itself are the only visual evidence of the piece. The text reads: I brought my sculpture To the Museum of Modern Art I leaned it against the wall To see how it would feel To be “in” MoMA I promise to take it with me when I leave Welcome to MollyeNet! MollyeNet is a WiFi network occupying space as an artwork in the Museum of Modern Art. At heart, MollyeNet is about longing and visibility, not subverting cultural gatekeepers. But it feels good to do both. MollyeNet operates by imitating MoMA WiFi and thus cannot exist outside of MoMA. MollyeNet does not interfere with the operation of MoMA in any way, except to live in the designated space of approved art without approval. Read the following terms and conditions, then click I Agree to proceed. Enjoy MollyeNet.

Maps

Maps layers sheets of clear acrylic into one column, each engraved with a different location-based data set from Baltimore City. Location sets such as Vacant Buildings, Mural Locations, and Public Pools individually form an incomplete map of Baltimore. However, stacked on top of each other the transparent pieces “fill in the blanks” to create a complete map. Maps responds to absorbing and resisting supposedly holistic media portrayals of Baltimore through generic data sets.

Maps 1.JPG

Maps layers sheets of clear acrylic into one column, each engraved with a different location-based data set from Baltimore City. Location sets such as Vacant Buildings and Public Pools individually form an incomplete map of Baltimore. However, stacked on top of each other the transparent pieces “fill in the blanks” to create a complete map.
Maps 2.jpg
Maps 3.JPG

Detail of the engraving.
Maps 4.JPG

A single dataset from the piece, in this case locations of religious institutions.
5 Maps.JPG

A different dataset, in this case gun offenses in 2015.

Tabs

A hanging mylar cloud of browser tab windows, Tabs attempts to physically realize the mundane interfaces that dominate daily lives while still alluding to these structures as immaterial. A repetitive cloud formation gives visual weight to almost invisible mylar silhouettes, attempting to imply a large amount of information that exists in lieu of meaning.

Tabs.jpg

A hanging mylar cloud of browser tab windows, Tabs attempts to physically realize the mundane interfaces that dominate daily lives while still alluding to these structures as immaterial.
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Tabs - Installation view
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Tabs - Detail
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Tabs - Side