30.06.11
ALTER | Mediation Of Sensation
Alter is a performative environment which intermingles multiple sensory phenomena in order to heighten and transform our habitual modes of perception. Over a specified period of time, groups of 13 visitors progress through a ritualized sequence of sensory-based actions. The scenography of alter consists of spatially defined stations that progress from offering a combination of predominantly haptic, olfactory and gustatory stimuli to a highly enhanced audio-visual-tactile-proprioceptive mix. Visually, these stations include a physical path that fuses the senses of touch and temperature; an area occupied by objects that provoke olfactory and gustatory sensations and finally, a 5 meter raised hexagonally shaped platform with a slowly rotating turntable in the center. As visitors sit atop the platform or stand on the rotating surface, they are surrounded by virtual walls of color changing light and immersed in a spatialized sound field. The environment progresses through various scenes, culminating in an intense, almost hallucinatory set of experiences in which flickering color, sound and tactile vibrations merge to the point of saturation.
The work is one of series of experiments conducted within the context of a larger research project entitled “Mediations of Sensation” involving Chris Salter, TeZ and anthropologist David Howes. The aim of “Mediations” is to create a space between art and anthropology where contemporary art practice can be informed by advanced research in sensory anthropology, and vice versa. Sensory anthropology is dedicated to charting the varieties of sensory experience across cultures. Howes and his team have documented a wide array of ways in which the senses are distinguished, valued, mixed and deployed in different cultures. Alter derives part of its inspiration from this archive. It mirrors the anthropological experience by offering a sensorially compelling, technologically augmented environment designed to open a crack in the conventional Western sensorium and transport the experiencer into a parallel sensory world. In addition to the artistic outcomes of the project (of which alter is the first), “Mediations” involves panel discussions and specific ethnographic research with the public in order to understand participant experiences, and evaluate the potential of performative environments of this kind to communicate anthropological knowledge in ways that are both more encompassing and immediate than the standard ethnographic monograph or film.
ALTER | Mediation Of Sensation
Alter is a performative environment which intermingles multiple sensory phenomena in order to heighten and transform our habitual modes of perception. Over a specified period of time, groups of 13 visitors progress through a ritualized sequence of sensory-based actions. The scenography of alter consists of spatially defined stations that progress from offering a combination of predominantly haptic, olfactory and gustatory stimuli to a highly enhanced audio-visual-tactile-proprioceptive mix. Visually, these stations include a physical path that fuses the senses of touch and temperature; an area occupied by objects that provoke olfactory and gustatory sensations and finally, a 5 meter raised hexagonally shaped platform with a slowly rotating turntable in the center. As visitors sit atop the platform or stand on the rotating surface, they are surrounded by virtual walls of color changing light and immersed in a spatialized sound field. The environment progresses through various scenes, culminating in an intense, almost hallucinatory set of experiences in which flickering color, sound and tactile vibrations merge to the point of saturation.
The work is one of series of experiments conducted within the context of a larger research project entitled “Mediations of Sensation” involving Chris Salter, TeZ and anthropologist David Howes. The aim of “Mediations” is to create a space between art and anthropology where contemporary art practice can be informed by advanced research in sensory anthropology, and vice versa. Sensory anthropology is dedicated to charting the varieties of sensory experience across cultures. Howes and his team have documented a wide array of ways in which the senses are distinguished, valued, mixed and deployed in different cultures. Alter derives part of its inspiration from this archive. It mirrors the anthropological experience by offering a sensorially compelling, technologically augmented environment designed to open a crack in the conventional Western sensorium and transport the experiencer into a parallel sensory world. In addition to the artistic outcomes of the project (of which alter is the first), “Mediations” involves panel discussions and specific ethnographic research with the public in order to understand participant experiences, and evaluate the potential of performative environments of this kind to communicate anthropological knowledge in ways that are both more encompassing and immediate than the standard ethnographic monograph or film.