space occupied

misprint thursday invited a couple of artists, among them oberon onmura and four yip, to show work at her artpounce gallery. my installation was relatively simple: part of the space was occupied by a kinetic object, the scanner, which moved in regular time intervals to a new location in a space restricted by a transparent cube. the space occupied by the scanner was not accessible to the avatars. a simple chair was placed in front, as if to provide a seat for watching the scanner. however, sitting on the chair directed the viewpoint to the avatar's face, which underwent distortion upon sitting down. here is a short text by nusch ray about the work:

When we enter Misprint Thursday's Artpounce Gallery, the left side of the first room, providing a nice view on the virtual ocean, is occupied by a moving object that reminds of a three-dimensional plotter: a small cube intersected by three bars, all moving together within a semi-transparent cubic volume of space, adopting a new position every now and then. A simple chair invites us to sit down, perhaps to contemplate the motion or to discover its underlying meaning. But upon sitting down, we first see our avatar's face undergo a horrible distortion. After that initial shock, which effectively perturbs our so accustomed feeling of embodiment, our view remains on the face of our digital representation, as if our screen turned into a mirror showing us our digital appearance. On one side the cube, carrying its own coordinate system, travelling on its random path unable to escape its impenetrable transparent cage. On the other side the viewer, thrown back to solipsistic self-reflection. This installation, simple and unpretentious, effectively works as an allegory of the medium, opposing work and viewer to each other, but separated and confined to their self-referential universes.

Nusch Ray, January 2009