16-20.11.2011
Mediations of Sensation: Threshold/Saturation
rev. I: Displace
Displace is a performative environment which intermingles multiple sensory phenomena in order to heighten and transform our habitual modes of perception. Over a 22 minute period, groups of 6 visitors progress through a sequence of sensory-based environments. At first, these environments intermingle gustatory and haptic stimuli but gradually other sensations are introduced. The installation culminates by placing the visitors inside an intense, almost hallucinatory space in which flickering color, sound and tactile vibrations merge to the point of saturation.
Displace is one of series of experiments conducted within the context of a larger research project entitled “Mediations of Sensation” developed by 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. Displace 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 Displace 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.
Mediations of Sensation: Threshold/Saturation
rev. I: Displace
Displace is a performative environment which intermingles multiple sensory phenomena in order to heighten and transform our habitual modes of perception. Over a 22 minute period, groups of 6 visitors progress through a sequence of sensory-based environments. At first, these environments intermingle gustatory and haptic stimuli but gradually other sensations are introduced. The installation culminates by placing the visitors inside an intense, almost hallucinatory space in which flickering color, sound and tactile vibrations merge to the point of saturation.
Displace is one of series of experiments conducted within the context of a larger research project entitled “Mediations of Sensation” developed by 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. Displace 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 Displace 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.