Through Bodies We Speak
One Sentence Summary:
Participants unlock cross-cultural star patterns and mythological narratives through their physical, collaborative arrangement within the gallery space.
We are all formed from elements that were forged in the furnaces of stars. It is a level of commonality that reaches beyond culture, beyond biology, beyond even DNA. The stars themselves are the most enduring sentinels of human history, and have served as timeless artifacts which cultures world-wide have projected patterns onto in order to model the way they understand life and the world at large.
Through Bodies We Speak allows viewers to interact with a cultural database of constellations by physically arranging themselves within the exhibition space. Viewers pick up brightly colored markers if they want to participate, which a watching camera can see. The camera feed is filtered through a Processing program which algorithmically matches it up to a database.
A projector displays stars on the wall of the space, which move accordingly as the viewers move. When they align close to the arrangement of a constellation, it slowly fades into view. When the participants match it exactly, a picture of the constellation appears, along with a short text telling the story of the animal, person, or object that arrangement signifies.
For example, the constellation of Orion is not presented as Orion, but as a story of a hunter who is blinded by the father of his lover, and is later killed by a fellow hunter. This allows it to be drawn into closer association with other star patterns from other cultures, without necessarily being labeled as something familiar. This puts the different cultures on more equal interpretive footing. Through Bodies We Speak will make use of existing international databases of diverse archeoastronomical star patterns, such as Navajo and Pueblo constellations, Roman constellations, Chinese Xingguans and Polynesian starlines.
The participatory nature of the interaction means the more people that can act in a collaborative nature, the more elaborate the constellation—and resultant narrative—unlocked. In this way it encourages a cooperative physical dialogue amongst viewers, while at the same time exposing them to other cultural interpretations of the night sky.
"The very molecules that make up your body--the atoms that construct the molecules--are traceable to the crucibles that were once the centers of high mass stars.
We're all connected. To each other, biologically. To the earth, chemically. And to the rest of the universe, atomically."
-Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist
One Sentence Summary:
Participants unlock cross-cultural star patterns and mythological narratives through their physical, collaborative arrangement within the gallery space.
We are all formed from elements that were forged in the furnaces of stars. It is a level of commonality that reaches beyond culture, beyond biology, beyond even DNA. The stars themselves are the most enduring sentinels of human history, and have served as timeless artifacts which cultures world-wide have projected patterns onto in order to model the way they understand life and the world at large.
Through Bodies We Speak allows viewers to interact with a cultural database of constellations by physically arranging themselves within the exhibition space. Viewers pick up brightly colored markers if they want to participate, which a watching camera can see. The camera feed is filtered through a Processing program which algorithmically matches it up to a database.
A projector displays stars on the wall of the space, which move accordingly as the viewers move. When they align close to the arrangement of a constellation, it slowly fades into view. When the participants match it exactly, a picture of the constellation appears, along with a short text telling the story of the animal, person, or object that arrangement signifies.
For example, the constellation of Orion is not presented as Orion, but as a story of a hunter who is blinded by the father of his lover, and is later killed by a fellow hunter. This allows it to be drawn into closer association with other star patterns from other cultures, without necessarily being labeled as something familiar. This puts the different cultures on more equal interpretive footing. Through Bodies We Speak will make use of existing international databases of diverse archeoastronomical star patterns, such as Navajo and Pueblo constellations, Roman constellations, Chinese Xingguans and Polynesian starlines.
The participatory nature of the interaction means the more people that can act in a collaborative nature, the more elaborate the constellation—and resultant narrative—unlocked. In this way it encourages a cooperative physical dialogue amongst viewers, while at the same time exposing them to other cultural interpretations of the night sky.
"The very molecules that make up your body--the atoms that construct the molecules--are traceable to the crucibles that were once the centers of high mass stars.
We're all connected. To each other, biologically. To the earth, chemically. And to the rest of the universe, atomically."
-Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist