Lamp Vision

performance wearable, 2017

What is between the human and the city?: a collectivity of interactions between beings and objects: a body of auras crossing, touching, brushing and commingling. What sits between the being and the city is the interactions inside a web of invisible communications of body language, auric field and geography of space. When one social actor makes a geographical change of placement – which exists even with a fragment of a breath – the aura follows the body. As all beings have this layer of energy around them, the modification of individual atmospheres affects the landscape of interconnectivity.

This helmet embodies the auric field of its wearer by projecting its legs perpendicularly. The personal space of the wearer can be extended as far as they desire. The non-materiality of the aura is evident as the wearer attempt to engage with passerby. The longer the legs, the wider the aura, the more difficult it becomes to navigate spaces without invading the space of another. The materiality of the lampshade speaks to the invisible nature of the auric field experienced by most beings. The awareness of the web of interactions could metaphorically be associated with a lightbulb, which is being dimmed by the lampshade. In this sense, the lampshade embodies a certain ignorance of existence that is engrained in beings within a city.

The inability to visualize the collective of interacting personal spheres is ultimately isolating. If it were possible to see the butterfly effect one beings’ actions\feelings\thoughts onto the web of other auric fields, it could be argued that our behaviors would be more thoughtful and intentioned. The audio component inside the helmet is meant to disorient and isolate the wearer with the goal of stimulating an out-of-body headspace. The ultimate intention of this fabricated mind-set is to prompt reflection on one’s non-material space and the ways in which it intersects with the fields of others.