What is Known is Not Necessarily a Fact, 2014
3-channle HD Video with audio, 16:30

A poetic exploration of the emergence and extinction of one species - the Agalinis acuta. This tiny pink flower (you can fit four on the tip of your finger) blooms only one day a year, and is New York's only federally protected endangered species. Following research with genetic biologists, conservancy land managers, US Fish and Wildlife public servants, and community protectors, What is Known is Not Necessarily a Fact follows the existential trajectory of this tiny little plant, from the melting of the glaciers, to Native American land-burning practices, to the introduction of the railroad and transatlantic flight, to the creation of the first suburban development and finally - to the establishment of genetic analysis. What emerges is a braided path of the known, the unknown and the believed in - a meditation on what it is to know. 

Credits

CAMERA, EDITING, COLOR
Miriam Simun

ORIGINAL MUSIC AND SOUND DESIGN
Zack Martin

ANIMATION
Pablo Gnecco

SPECIAL THANKS
Paul D'Andrea, Dr. Maile Neel, Betsy Gulotta and the Friends of Hempstead Plains

Part of the series Agalinis Dreams

Agalinis Dreams (2014-2017) began as a commission for the Museum of Arts and Design NYC Biennial, curated by Jake Yuzna

an ongoing series, including:

All that is used, broken, lost (live performance)
One day in the land of tribute (communal sensorial experience, live performance)
What is Known (artist book)
A Wet Chemical Trace (exhibition)
A Wet Chemical Trace (video)
Corporeal Downloads (sculpture series, installation)