Catalog for Sensorium
© MIT Press

Curator Bill Arning gave an amazing tour today of Sensorium Part II, which is currently up at MIT’s List Visual Arts Center. Arning was one of the better public speakers I think I’ve seen in a long time, or maybe ever in my life — his ability to eloquently talk about art, history, philosophy, films, and the sterility of urine was impressive, to say the least. Along with the exhibition, Arning pointed out, there’s a catalog published by MIT Press that consists of scholars, scientists, writers, and curators writing on “the implications of the techno-human interface,” the book mostly text. I skimmed through and the essays seem very worthwhile if you’re at all interested in these ideas.

Although I felt as if Part II of this exhibition wasn’t quite as strongly assembled as Part I, it concluded what, as a whole, was a very interesting show. Some highlights from Part II:

Mathieu Briand

Sensorium Part II continues with an environment by French artist Mathieu Briand that is based on the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was for the general public, the moment when the imaginary future of science fiction became real. Briand’s work incorporates helmets that allow visitors to see through the eyes of others, and a view of the earth from a space station.

This installation was mostly just really fun. Wearing the helmets, you can see (by the camera attached to the forehead) your perspective but, with the press of a button, jump to seeing the perspective of others wearing helmets — sometimes seeing yourself walking around in the environment.

Natascha Sadr-Haghighian

Singing Microscope (2006) features an old-fashioned microscope on display, carrying the imprimatur of MIT history. The standard practice of eye to eyepiece will instantiate the frustration of “seeing nothing” as viewers swap ear for eye and hearing for vision, and discover a soundtrack in place of visual information. The piece is inspired by Haghighian’s reading of Evelyn Fox-Keller’s work. Fox-Keller is Professor of History and Philosophy of Science in the Program in Science, Technology and Society at MIT and author of Reflections on Gender and Science; Secrets of Life, Secrets of Death: Essays on Language, Gender and Science among many others. Her essay, The Biological Gaze, looks specifically at the microscope, and a gendered difference in scientists’ fantasies of what constitutes their enterprise as manifested by scientists desire to view hidden mysteries without intervening.

Where the eyepiece would be on the microscope, instead there was a small cushoned speaker for you to put your ear up to. In case you’re wondering, the microscope played an acappella version of Every Breath You Take by The Police in what sounded like a computerized voice — the “stalker’s love song,” as Bill Arning refered to it during the tour.

Christian Jankowski

Cyberspace theoreticians refer to chat-room interactions as “low bandwidth” encounters, in that less than five percent of the sensorial information we use to understand and relate to another person is transmitted. For Let’s Get Physical/Digital (1997), Christian Jankowski used himself and his girlfriend of the time as experimental subjects faced with a new social structure, the virtual space of chat rooms. Due to circumstances beyond their control, the couple was required to be in separate countries for long periods of time; since they were both short on funds, they would arrange to meet in chat rooms at set times. Jankowski saved the texts generated by their intimate talks as a found script. He then used the same Internet technology that had enabled their virtual rendezvous to find amateur actors who would recite their impassioned, spontaneous words.

The viewer watched two often very bad actors together in a room reciting the intimate lines exchanged between Christian and Una, the actors in close proximity but speaking lines such as, “I wish I could touch you” or “I just had some trouble, but I’m back” [referring to being kicked out of the chat room]. I thought this whole piece was genius.

Other artists in Part II were François Roche and Anri Sala.

If you’re curious, all of the information for Part I of Sensorium can be found here.

This is one of those shows where I can firmly say, “you had to be there.”

David Hilliard at Sensorium, 2007

UPDATE: Here’s a cell phone shot I took of David Hilliard wearing one of the helmets from Mathieu Briand’s Ubiq, a Mental Odyssey, 2006.

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