Artefacts

Parsons Thesis Show Script

We represent the High Focus Institute. The High Focus Institute is dedicated to the pursuit of technotranscendence.

Technotranscendence is the state of technologically mediated self knowledge which empowers the individual experiencing it to transcend the limitation of the technosphere that they inhabit.

The technosphere denotes all human creation.

Have you previously experienced this state?

Place your hand upon this object and consider this statement carefully -

The horror of nature is indifference towards us, we must remake it such that it should care for us.

We have remade nature without understanding how it will remake us

We cannot give ourselves what we need until we understand what our needs are

Have you considered your future

We have considered your future

Testing indicates you are a prime candidate.

Your inter view will be conducted at the HFI central offices. During conference hours at our global SUMMIT May 27 - 29

SUMMIT Lineup

Welcome to SUMMIT:

The HIGH FOCUS INSTITUTE’s conference on Nature, Technology & Self.

Installation & performing artists will present current and new work at the edge of their fields connecting identity, human ingenuity and the cosmos. And discuss. And dance. 

FRIDAY: 6-10pm *Opening Program
SATURDAY: 12-8pm *Installations Open
.................................. 8pm-1am *GODDESS PARTY VII, SUMMIT EDITION*
SUNDAY: 2-10pm *Closing Program

--FEATURING--

SUNNY QUETZALCOATL

JEN PLASKOWITZ

THOM ULMER

DANIEL KLAG

ERICA SCHREINER

OCULUS COLLECTIVE

CHRISTINA LAFONTAINE

STEWART LOSEE

ALEX BASCO KOCH

DEAN ANTHONY CERCONE

WILDER DUNCAN

SAINTS OF AN UNNAMED COUNTRY

NYSSA FRANK & MIKE GARCIA

AYODAMOLA OKUNSEINDE

BIRCE ÖZKAN

ALANA AVIEL

&

A NEW ENVIRONMENTAL INTERVENTION BY THE HIGH FOCUS INSTITUTE: NOW HIRING

We represent the HIGH FOCUS INSTITUTE. 

THE HIGH FOCUS INSTITUTE is dedicated to bringing technotranscendence into the reach of every person.

The horror of nature is its indifference towards us.

The wind blows: a sweet breeze or a storm, the wind does not understand our needs or our bodies.

We ARE fragile, though sometimes we forget it.

The purpose of technology is to change nature into something that responds to OUR needs.

Something that understands us.

Not NATURE, but NURTURE.

How do we do this? How do we remake nature such that it cares for us?

The human genius is that of INVENTION. every thing we make to shield us from the storm, to predict & redirect it to serve our needs, that is TECHNOLOGY.

NATURE.

TECHNOLOGY.

THE WAY THINGS ARE.

THE WAY WE MAKE THEM TO BE.

NOW Mother Earth ...

... is Spaceship Earth, TECHNOLOGY is the condition. Nothing has not been touched by the efforts of humankind, not even the weather.

But what did we do? How did we get here? We have remade nature, without understanding how it will remake us.

We were blind to the consequences, but TECHNOLOGY itself has allowed us to see them, and to see that The World is now of our own making.

We laid this trap for ourselves, & we must escape from it as well.

TECHNOLOGY not only keeps our bodies safe from the elements, it also extends our understanding of the world around us so that we can effectively intervene in response to our needs.

WHAT do we really need?

How can we answer that question without knowing WHO we are?

Here at HFI we believe that not only can we use TECHNOLOGY to shape the world around us, we can use it to understand the world INSIDE us.

We cannot give ourselves what we need until we understand what our needs are.

Thus, we strive to use TECHNOLOGY to better know ourselves.

The High Focus Institute is here to help.

Our interventions are technological environments specifically designed to promote reflection & contemplation, to provide our participants with the tools to achieve TECHNOTRANSCENDENCE, a state of self knowing amplified by techno-spiritual engagement.

The success of our intervention this fall inspired us here at the HIGH FOCUS INSTITUTE to further our outreach activities with a NEW intervention: NOW HIRING.

And indeed, the HIGH FOCUS INSTITUTE is NOW HIRING. The weekend of Memorial Day we want YOU to be part of an exhibition addressing the issues the HIGH FOCUS INSTITUTE... Focuses on. Use this card to contact us and find out more.

We hope that you will join us, contribute to the conversation, & discover within yourself the potentiality for TECHNOTRANSCENDENCE, for the sake of us all.

(cue fog machine)

Website design layout in progress ---

High Focus Institute at the Immersive Lab in Zurich

The High Focus Institute has been selected for a residency in Switzerland at the immersive Lab at the Zurich University for the Arts.

http://immersivelab.zhdk.ch/

"The ‘Immersive Lab’ is an artistic and technological research project of the Institute of Computer Music and Sound Technology at the Zurich University of the Arts. It is a media space that integrates panoramic video, surround audio with full touch interaction on the entire screen surface. The ‘Immersive Lab’ provides a platform for a catalogue of artistic works that are specifically tailored to the unique situation that this configuration offers. These works articulate the relationship between immersive media and direct interaction. It functions both as a space for experimental learning and creation and as a permanent audiovisual installation for the general public, showing finished pieces in a self-explanatory way."

SUMMIT

In order to demonstrate the ritual to an audience within a social context, but also more broadly perform the philosophy of the movement as a social sculpture. To borrow the term from Josef Beuys, incorporating art on a societal level with the intention of transformational impact (at least on the microcultural scale). In this way, The High Focus Institute seeks to structure a small scale social environment as a means of disseminating its philosophy, both via social experience of the immersive rituals but also via collaboration with surrounding artists.

The choice of the title “SUMMIT” deliberately evokes the ideas coming together for the purposes of sharing ideas, as well as a metaphorical high point of experience while also paying attention to the absurdity of the term used within corporate language as business and economic summits. Relating particularly to the NOW HIRING ritual and its re-imagining of economic labor towards a shared emotional sensory “doing”.

THE HIGH FOCUS INSTITUTE presents:SUMMIT. A three-day exhibition of performance and installation On the relationship between SELF NATURE & TECHNOLOGY. A large open former industrial warehouse was chosen in keeping with the ethos of operating outside the commercial gallery context, using artist run spaces. Similarly a compressed timeline of 3 days was chosen to focus attendance towards a social happening rather than a succession of individual experiences. This shortened time frame also allows for an integration between performers and constructed environments. Each artist is selected based upon prior work and provided the curatorial statement, as well as an allotment of space.

Curatorial Statement

NATURE: THE WAY THINGS ARE.

TECHNOLOGY: THE THINGS WE MAKE.

The term “technology” includes every product of human invention, from a sharpened stick to virtual networks. The things we make in turn remake us & shift our understanding of what is possible

NOW Mother Earth is Spaceship Earth. TECHNOLOGY is the condition. Nothing has not been touched by the efforts of humankind, not even the weather. Here at THE HIGH FOCUS INSTITUTE we believe that not only can we use TECHNOLOGY to shape the world around us, we can use it as a tool to reconcile ourselves to the realities of NATURE.

We strive to use TECHNOLOGY to gain control over our surroundings, and the act of engaging with those surroundings IS the story of our SELF. The process of creating things is the process of creating identity.

How do we make meaning out of the modern world, which is constructed primarily of human artifacts?

How do we use that meaning to help us understand our place in the cosmos?

Process Updates

Artefacts

The capabilities of the artefacts have been further defined with a view to achieving a functional prototype for testing in the next week. This will include an Arduino nano microcontroller connected to a wireless transceiver to be able to seamlessly communicate with the projection system. The information that will be communicated will be derived from a combined gyroscope, magnetometer, and accelerometer as well as a capacitive touch sensor to determine whether participants are in contact with each artefact.

This technology will be embedded within wooden objects of various shapes and sizes. A copper inlay of the surface will specify the capacitive touch functions and act as an antenna for the wireless transmission.

Application

Development is continuing on the application to control the projection system using openframeworks. The current base model involves a 3D model environment with a video texture. Since there exists no existing library to generate a spherical or cylindrical projection from the virtual camera a solution has been devised using an array of cameras, each slightly rotated and then rendered to slices that can be recombined to a single output that simulates a panoramic projection.

A physics simulation has been added to the vantage point of the cameras, allowing input to push the spatial representation around to give the sensation of motion.

A serial input has been added to allow an arduino to communicate the received wireless transmissions from the artefacts to the projection system

Space

A space has been confirmed for the exhibition of the project from May 27 - 28 in a warehouse location in Brooklyn. The thesis show will provide an opportunity to demonstrate the project before its final implementation.

One factor of such a large space is that it will necessitate a surrounding experience to enhance the installation. To this end we are currently seeking to curate several other projects too exist alongside.

Candidacy Review Slides

Process Updates

Environment Fabrication

The structure has been built using a frame constructed of aluminum and steel rigid conduit. By using a jig system the conduit could be bent to the appropriate curve for the circular pieces. Bending steel conduit was extremely difficult however and required a heavy steel fencepost to act as a lever to achieve the result.

The screen is constructed from rear projection vinyl cut to the appropriate size and sewn over with grommets in order to stretch it around the frame. This screen covers a 270 degree angle, leaving a 90 degree angle for the 'door'. The aesthetic of the environment will be further refined by using molding to hide the edges of where the screen attaches to the frame.

This design can be built in one hour, and struck in 20 minutes. It can also be adapted to use ceiling supports if it's desired to remove the two supports occluding the screen image. A 180 degree 'cove' version is possible by rearranging the pieces to use in tighter spaces.




Object Interactions 

The artefact interactions are planned to occur around an 'altar' like environment. To prototype this surface I'm returning to previous object constructed by laser engraving geometry on to a live edge slab of wood, then coating with copper paint and sanding off to create a touch circuit.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Mystical-Geometric-Slab/

However in order to produce a meaningful relationship with the positioning of these objects on the surface there must be a positional relationship and so I'm looking to design the circuit as a 6 x 6 grid allowing 36 discreet inputs from the board (will require using 3 Makey Makey boards)

Currently looking in to tesselatic patterns from the medieval islamic period as inspiration such as the frescoes of Alhambra in Spain.

As for the objects to be used I initially investigated a number of materials including ferrous ones (such as magnetic putty) however their real world applications were unsuitable and so the default material is standard clay or sculpey (which is sufficiently conductive to trigger the circuitry)

Interactive System

While the original prototype used a custom Openframeworks application to drive the projection content. For the past 2 months I've been evaluating a Unity based solution for this ritual. At this point it seems unlikely that unity can delivery video mapped 3d environments at a high enough resolution in real time for the project due to the inability for the application to multithread video playback.

The most likely option will be a return to Openframeworks to write another application for rendering the projection content

Venue Options

The search for a venue continues. While there are many opportunities, there are difficulties with any particular one aligning perfectly with the production schedule. 

It's likely a showcase style performance will be scheduled for mid May in either a warehouse or storefront location. This will ideally be followed by a 

So far applications to various options have been submitted and will continue to be for the following several months. We were also contacted by Ars Electronica (based on our previous performance) and invited to submit the project.

High Focus Institute Proposal Document

PDF version downloadable here 

Women of Tir - Thesis Summary

Women of Tir - Thesis Summary


In Women of Tir, Lucy Bonner use the medium of interactive comic to explore a microcultural

approach to feminism, individual struggles for survival and personal relationships. Using the

tropes of science fiction, we explore the interrelated narratives of several characters as they

navigate life on a dystopic space colony in a future time. This future, in the traditions of

science fiction makes commentary upon existing societal constructs by imagining both how

we could be radically other (if given a different technological and ecological context) as well

as what we might be confined to (given our intrinsic human inclinations).


Importantly for Women of Tir and especially given the historical tendencies of both the

medium and the genre to underrepresent certain groups within society, the narrative takes

an intersectional approach by self consciously highlighting the differences in race, age, class

and sexuality amongst the points of view of the protagonists. The reader is then able to

inhabit the viewpoints of each, via an interactive choice in order to understand the

mechanics of power and oppression within the colony society.

In this way the form uses narrative and character development to make accessible systems

of thought as described by theorists such as Bell Hooks or Audre Lorde, but also with the

dual intent of aiding the aforementioned by making those voices heard. We might even

return to the Politics of Aesthetics of Jacques Ranciere to state that the giving of

representation can act to help deconstruct existing hierarchies amongst disempowered

groups within societies.


The medium of interactive comic book fits well within this critical intent given its

reproducibility as well as the animated elements to creatively extend the capacities of the

traditional printed form. The interactive choice as to the viewpoint by which the reader can

experience the narrative makes them complicit to the experience of the chosen protagonist.

This allows a sensation of affiliation not unlike an avatar whereby the fictional characters are

brought closer.


The fact that these same forms of oppression continue to surface in another time at times

paints a bleak picture for the future of our interaction and capacities for societal change.

However there is hope to be found within individual struggles of resistance and adaptability

when faced with harsh environments.

Summary of The High Focus Institute (Lucy Bonner)

Thesis Summary - Lucy Bonner


High Focus is a conceptual experience within a fictional future New Age

movement carefully designed to engender introspection in the participant. An entire

spiritual movement has been composed, complete with metaphysical goals, in order to

create a full background for the designed ritualistic experience and accompanying

physical installation. The fictional New Age movement is purposefully over-the-top in

order for the participants to more easily accept the thought-provoking questions of the

procedure – and not perceive the experience as didactic and off-putting. Upon hearing a

short preface to the movement, the participant is asked to call the elevator at the press

of a button. This act of consent is important for the self-determination facet of the

experience, and these consensual acts continuously reappear throughout the designed

ritual to maintain the active nature of the participation. Once the “elevator” is called,

participants step into a tube with another designer, in character as a guide, as part of the

movement. The tube is back-projected from all sides to create a full 360 degree

envelopment. Each scene projected acts as a “level” and through touching hands with

the guide (another repetitive act of consent) the participant indicates whether or not to

ascend, descend, or leave, and the projection moves to mirror the indicated direction.

The participant is asked questions about themselves and their lives at each level, and

gives answers only to their own inclinations.

The open-ended questions, consent to travel to new levels, and physical touch

are all designed to give each participant a sense of authorship to the experience,

something lacking from the in day-to-day lives in this society of separation – separation

from meaning and purpose, and from direct interaction with people or objects. The

ritualistic experience is designed to prompt introspection on this separation and one’s

own understanding of purpose.

Two guides, a tube, and projections are the basis of the piece, and with so few

elements High Focus manages to inspire many to profound thoughts on the increasingly

materialistic and separatist world in those who accept it. The amount one gets out of

the experience is entirely up to the participant – again part of the design around consent

and the participant authoring their own experience. That concept of authoring for

oneself is an important part of High Focus’s reflection of and reaction against the

disembedding of people from purpose and meaning in the world – and the anxiety and

depression that comes with that separation – by inviting the participant to take an active

part in their own life and experience.

Rethinking mystical presence

Rethinking mystical presence

Michael Glen

'What to do? How to act? Who to be? These are focal questions for everyone living in circumstances of late modernity - and ones which, on some level or another, all of us answer, either discursively or through day-to-day social behaviour.'

- Anthony Giddens

This set of questions lies at the heart of our existentially anxious world. Self itself has become the determining factor of our existential satisfaction, yet at the same time the conditions of late modernity have dislodged ourselves from our physical and social environments. Actions and experience feel distanced from a coherent system of meaning for many.

Outlining the anxiety

We are dis-embedded. In a way this was a bargain struck for the purposes of material comfort and accumulation resulting from industrialization, and a reordering of society based upon production and consumption. This bargain was not without cost, as this process of reordering required a set of separations - a disembedding. A separation of individuals from localized cultures but also within individuals of their physicality from time and space.

Giddens describes the tendency of technology as a catalyst to this process. Such that technology acts to separate our bodies from time and space. The fact that one might project their image across the world, but also record it for another time. In its simplest sense the action being divorced from the body. We might also find that societies themselves suffer from a disembedding as social interactions become mediatized, virtualized and remote.

Consider the following complaints of modernity - engaging in work that seems absent from greater meaning, the consumption of lifestyle as replacement for community, and the performative nature of remote social engagement. They all point to ways of doing and experiencing being lifted from limited local contexts.

As we glue these pieces together the configurations seem uneasy as if there must be another way. However a recreation of the traditional would be a mere simulation of what was, ill-fitting to our current material circumstances. Conversely a dive headlong into the myth of progress offered by modernity comes up short against the hollow offerings of consumerism and capitalism. And so we are left holding the pieces of ourselves, and the glue of our material capacities yet unable to create satisfying configurations.

Interesting reactions against this divorce of doing from purpose, are offered by radical non-empirical constructions of reality such as countercultural or new age movements, yet they are inadequate to the needs of most. The spiritual and metaphysical aspects of 1960s counterculture might seem an obscure starting point for addressing modern self identity but it is emblematic of the ways in which new frameworks of thought were grasped for to orient ourselves towards nature and each other. At times appropriating existing traditions or borrowing from contemporary ideas but always adapting towards an individualized approach towards meaning.

This situation of continuing anxiety and inadequacy creates the following design problem - How can we think about self identity in a way that allows a sense of meaning or cosmology for our life processes in contemporary society?

While an inescapable condition in which we must construct a reality for ourselves, this cannot happen independently of the material world. To live in a reality of our own choosing in this way would produce a cognitive dissonance unbearable for most, or requiring of ever greater mental gymnastics to achieve internal consistency. The ongoing existence of fundamentalists, conspiracy theorists and the like illustrates the ongoing appeal but also the walled nature of their realities. By the other extreme, self identity cannot be a purely empirical proposition. Construction of self is an act of imagination, a story told of past and present conditions indicating the possible horizons of the future. Empiricism demonstrates what is predictively so, rather than that which could be. To reject any imaginative construction of reality would confine one to the limits of existing systems of thought, which in the case of modernity would be the narrative of more, and ever increasing efficiency to unspecified ends.

In order to alter the narrative we must consider the manner in which it is constructed. It operates reflexively in the way that it must be continually retold in the context of interactions and experiences. The modern context includes a shifting set of premises from which this must be drawn is ongoing and at times uncomfortable. Consequently, the agency offered to individuals both opens possibilities but implies an ethical condition, manifesting as a set of uneasy circumstances in which self must be constructed.  

The ethical condition is thus: Self identity now presents itself as choice. Choice represents both anxiety and opportunity, and the stakes of these narratives are high in the material world as individuals become conscious consumers of materiality and producers of lifestyles. We face choices in our lives regarding how to act, and these actions are consequential to the lives of others. Within a modern condition they are unavoidably informed by our self narrative. Whether it be via the work performed or products consumed, social engagements it is inescapable. Imagination has material consequences.

Consider self in terms of the relationship between these two realities - the imaginative contained within the empirical. In 1967, during the height of the 1960s counterculture activist Abbie Hoffman vowed to levitate the pentagon with psychic energy, causing it to change colors. What to make of such an outrageous claim, on one hand so dissonant with observable reality, yet on the other a process engaged in with sincere fervor? Of course the Pentagon stood firmly in place despite the chanting and meditations, but this did by no means imply a foolishness on the part of Hoffman. He understood that this was an engagement with a form of mystical reality for a theatrical purpose. The materiality of the building did not need to move an inch for it to be remade as vulnerable.

Mystical constructions of reality appeal to that with which modernity has failed to supply us. Mysticism is not a failure of knowledge nor an attempt to somehow know the unknowable, but a deep desire to approach the material world as a sentient entity. That which could understand us. The horror of nature is its indifference towards us, and we project our sentience upon to remake it such that it should care for us. Nature in this context being used to refer to that which exists prior to or outside of human intervention.

The desire for the mastery of nature has always been driven by social narrative, the collective acts of individuals projecting sentience on to the world via made objects and in turn being remade by them. A key difference within the late modern condition is the replacement of unified social narrative with that of the individual. Not to say that individual narratives are determined externally to society but rather the narrative itself is dealt with on an individual level continually being retold in the context of social engagement. It is human and fundamental to address nature as sentient, whether we recreate it technologically, understand it spiritually or romanticize the cosmos into a position of conspiring for our benefit.

While an understanding of an indifferent nature might not always seem horrific, it has always been unacceptable to regard it as such, for to do so would be to regard our own existence if it were to be meaningful as necessarily divorced from it. An example among many of the application of desire for sentience to mystical thinking -

In September 2006, a survey about belief in various religious and paranormal topics conducted by phone and mail-in questionnaire polled 1,721 Americans on their belief in telekinesis. Of these participants, 28% of male participants and 31% of female participants selected "agree" or "strongly agree" with the statement, "It is possible to influence the world through the mind alone."

Unlike Hoffman, surely this is a case of sincerely held belief in a form of mystical reality. It certainly forms a cognitive dissonance with what is demonstrable regarding the material world. Alongside astrology, self-help or any number of new age interpretations of cosmology these approaches to reality are actual experiences, not implying a self-awareness on the behalf of the adherents.

There is an intuitive understanding amongst those holding beliefs in mystical realities, such that the engagement is sincere yet it is also as method. It’s no mistake that the most common applications of this type of thinking is upon the imagined world of self identity. A conflict arises when these modes of thinking intersect with a contemporary world ever increasingly defined by technological and industrial processes operating from a basis in pure empirical thought.

Technology and industrialization amplify our abilities to intervene within the material world creating the conditions by which the determining factors of our futures become less so the means by which we may act but our abilities to collectively imagine future conditions. One might therefore be tempted to appeal to grand societal narratives as a means to enact change. However the very same forces of modernity have reshaped the relationship of the individual to society such that self identity must continually be created rather than provided.

Rather than a singular narrative to be imposed (this is an impossibility). We propose a new way of reconfiguring the relationship of self narrative, made objects and society by using constructed realities as systems of subjective truth for the purposes of self knowledge.  

A five step method for considering the modern self as mystical

1. Asking questions, not answers

There are no universal methods to be applied across either time or individual contexts.

As borne out by the previous descriptions detailing responses to modern anxieties of the self help or new age variety, it is tempting to provide definitive answers one might apply to their own lifestyle. Their inadequacy in this regard functions almost as a feature - addressing anxiety in a limited fashion but also reinforcing it as a means to its continued existence. The latest exercise or diet regime will never offer true mastery over the body and its desires. Likewise the prospects of self actualization are unlikely to be more than temporarily found within the pages of a book.

A component of this impossibility lies within the reflexive nature of modernity. Not only are the means to self identity individualized for each person, they are constantly under reconstruction due to the changing conditions of society. It stands to reason that a design process (to intervene within the systems of reconstruction) is better suited than the false hope of a design solution for individuals and their relationship to self. Such a process would involve the means by which productive questions might be asked of identity rather than prescriptive answers.

2. Re-embedding

Rejecting the non-empirical confines us to what is - material capitalist society. Identities of self formed either by the consumption of lifestyle, or the status achieved via the production of economic value. This results in a tortuous relationship to authenticity.

Since the uneasy processes of modernity leading to this point have been referred to as dis-embedding, we can term this response of self enquiry as re-embedding. Taking the collection of disparate notions of body, mind, time and space then considering them in configurations towards a meaningful focal point.

Questions of consumption, experience and the interactions with the material world are now rethought in terms of ritual process. Conversely, questions of production, work and actions performed upon the material world are rethought under the reclaimed notion of poetic making. Finally we consider how both these configurations can serve to enhance social intimacy and mutuality at the expense of exclusion and false authenticity.

3. Outlining Ritual

It may seem counterintuitive to consider ritual process to be the converse or antidote to identities based within consumption or lifestyle. However, if we compare the common function of ritual processes within traditional societies - to encode symbolic narratives within designated times and places with specified objects. This describes the very opposite suggestions of dis-embedding (as defined per Giddens). Within a ritual process time, space, body and mind are brought towards a limited local context. This provides the opportunity for meaning to be performed amongst our selves, our artifacts and social milieu.

Made objects, and our interactions with them form the basis of this type of ritual. Elaine Scarry, when describing “The Interior Structure of the Artifact” seeks to show that made objects are attempts to make the world “sentient” and that they are projections of those who make them which have a reciprocal effect, “remaking” those who make them. The mass production of artifact as a means of imposition upon nature also requires the mass consumption of artifact as a means of maintenance of self. At the point at which we interact with these made objects the process is already ritualized if not consciously so.

This unconscious participation in the ritual of consumption will continue if unchecked and will contain consequences, especially considering the likelihood that ritual based consumption will be determined by the increasing capacities of technology and their likely adaptation. Rather than a sentience in nature that we seek, an ersatz version in the form of technology that will not strictly be sentient but rather will ‘know’ us via its functions and abilities to address our needs and desires. This increasing sentience will no doubt be adequate to continued consumption but will only heighten the hollow sensations on offer.

We can see this borne out within the postmodern desire for authenticity within the conception of lifestyle. The idea that some symbolic acts of consumption are more ‘real’ than others. That the artifacts of modernity are so many un-signed objects. Objects without discernible authors or histories resulting in unsatisfyingly plastic interactions (of course the term plastic itself as mass material has come to mean inauthentic in language). As proof of this tendency we can look towards the multitude of products termed artisanal, bespoke, custom. The search for signed artifacts however is no substitute the anxieties of self identity as the mass production of ‘authenticity’ itself leads to the sensation of this new authenticity being performed for social status and thus itself an imitation of some other realness.

4. Reclaiming Poetic Making

The alternate side of this set of relationships concerns the manner in which we act upon artifacts, whether it be the direct manufacture of objects or the more abstract intervention in systems and surrounding them. If consumption can be rethought in terms of its ritual components, then production also.

A key complaint of the disembodied is the apparent meaninglessness of many forms of ‘work’. We can use work in this context as a stand in as the most common conception of making and doing in an industrialized world but these descriptions operate more generally. Since work is deemed to be at least economically valuable, the efficient market dictates that if work is exchanged for value it must contain some purpose to someone somewhere. Why does it so often feel this way?

The answer lies within two angles - Firstly, ever narrowing specializations and the virtualization presented by technology create layers of abstraction. This creates an emotional separation from the cause and effects of making. Secondly, the generation of economic value is at times separated from personal value. Work may be performed for economic expediency in the absence of greater purpose.

The former describes the impact of modernity upon process. A worker may describe a lack of fulfillment in terms of engaging in a process with a faceless entity performing generic tasks.  This is the other side of the unsigned artifact. The actions, making or services performed are non-specific to the individual and therefore feel disconnected. The disconnection is further exacerbated since the worker in question cannot emotionally experience the outcomes of the actions even if they understand cognitively that their actions do have outcomes in aggregate as part of their organization.

For actions to be reconnected we return to self identity. Considering the narrative aspects of the action in question - Are these actions expressive of self identity via process, and additionally do they align with the ongoing narrative of our lives?

5. Social intimacy and authenticity

Finally, if the following have been established - Actions and experiences might better be approached by considering self identity using signed objects in a ritual context. In a pre-modern context, this would happen within local communities. Since we are lifted out of these via modernity it is necessary to actively create the social context for these processes. Telling these stories in a social context enshrines them with value. When we create worlds in which we are ‘known’ we value ourselves and allow others to do the same.

Since we have stated that this storytelling is unavoidable, in the absence of some other conception we would be reduced to valuing people based purely upon their economic capacities or upon their performative consumption. Solutions to meaning cannot be simply fashionable and contingent upon the exclusion of others.

Thesis Abstract

The High Focus Institute presents a series of experiential performance installations concerning the relationships of belief, empiricism and technology. We propose new ways of reconfiguring the relationship of self narrative, made objects and society by using constructed realities as systems of subjective truth for the purposes of self knowledge.


This experience takes the form of a series of rituals conducted for small groups of participants within an immersive projected environment. Each group is guided through the process by two performers acting as intermediary between the interactive technologies and social interactions they are designed to facilitate. Within these circumstances the performers aid the participants in questioning their self narratives and translating these questions into sensory experiences.