Amy Franceschini and the collective Futurefarmers collaborated with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) to create “A Variation on the Powers of Ten,” an on-site and online artwork consisting of sculpture, sound components, photographs, and video. “A Variation” was based on the Futurefarmers’ documentation of their 2011 research residency at the University of California Berkeley Center for New Media and related fieldwork at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The project was inspired by the Charles and Ray Eames documentary film, Powers of Ten, which begins with a one-meter-wide scene, shot from above, of a couple sitting on a picnic blanket. Every 10 seconds the camera moves upward by another power of 10 until the viewer arrives at empty space. At that point, the camera rapidly descends until it reaches its starting position, at which point it dives into the epidermal layer of the human body to traverse the inner edges of knowledge. Futurefarmers’ installation incorporated 10 recorded interviews with scholars whose disciplines and ideas relate to one of the magnitudes of 10.
Amy Franceschini’s practice spans drawing, sculpture, design, net art, public art, and gardening. She is concerned with notions of community, sustainable environment, and the relations between humans and nature. Michael Swaine has collaborated with Franceschini through Futurefarmers since 1997. In 2012, SFMOMA marks its 77th year. Its distinguished collection comprises more than 27,000 works of modern and contemporary painting, sculpture, photography, media art, architecture, and design. It welcomes 630,000 visitors annually.