+ABOUT THE WORK

The Sympathetic Motion series comprises four large-scale soft kinetic sculptures. The series takes its name from the musical term "Sympathetic resonance," which refers to the harmonic phenomenon in which a passive string or vibratory body responds to external vibrations that share a harmonic likeness. Similarly, the motion in these sculptures becomes unpredictable as a result of the interaction between their mechanical parts, the fabricated structures inside, and the fabric itself. The series aims to explore how human emotions and behaviors are evoked through observed movement, as well as why humans instinctively anthropomorphize moving objects. The artist sought to delve deeper into how people's reactions to moving objects change depending on different design qualities, object movements, and preconceptions derived from culture, society, and the past. The design choices were made to exploit humans' desire to animate moving objects and offer them an opportunity to interact with something that is both non-human and non-identifiable. The series also raises questions about the nature of interactions with these entities that technology brings to life and whether such interactions can have an impact on human relationships with non-human beings in real life.

+ writing accompanying the work

I stretch above and below to connect the ends in a new way. They’re a part of me and I of them. I hold out my quills to extend my home. If you and I should share a touch, I would show you the spaces between. I move on my own, not with the wind, not towards the sun, nor do I need water. I contain all within myself. You decide who I am, what I am, where I am from.

+ more about the work

The little cars Wally, Dory, Mortimer, Ferguson and Baxter move back and forth in different combinations on the wood curvy tracks. They report their location to the brain of the system that functions as a communication line between all of them. The brain remembers and communicates the position of each sculpture to the other that is in proximity. For instance, when Wally and Dory are the farthest from each other they might realize they miss each other and therefore go into a certain state of behavior that reflects their sadness while if they are closest to each other they might mingle. Once every so often, they move together or towards each other. The tracks never cross so the sculptures can never touch each other unless they are already tangled together, coupled, from the beginning.

When the visitors walk they first see the movement of the fabric sculptures and then realize the tracks. All of the electronics in the ceiling are somewhat hidden because the tracks are designed to blend into the architecture and become an appendage to it. The very complicated system on the ceiling is reflected by not so complicated movements at eye-level. While the tracks blend into the architecture, the vertical sculptures jump out and drool onto the floor as if they are reaching for the audience. The piece facilitates a physical relationship between the architecture and the residents in it.

As the visitors enter the installation and walk through they have to change their behavior in the space according to the sculptures or interrupt the system. They may choose to interrupt the system by pushing the pieces out of their way, pulling them or just holding them. This physical interruption by the audience, interrupts the relationships within the system. Every time the audience chooses to hold one of the sculptures a second more than sculpture is supposed to stay in that place, the counter in the brain that remembers and reports where the sculptures are or what they are supposed to do next gets interrupted and confused. As a result the relationships between the objects alter.

In contrast, the audience is also interrupted by the sculptures. When placed in a cramped space where the audience has to walk through the sculpture to get to the other side, visitors that do not want to touch the pieces will have to navigate around the pieces and walk in a zigzag like a pattern or get hit by them.

My aim in this project is to investigate relationships between mechanical objects that have physical qualities within a closed system and the system’s relationship to the architecture and the audience. It is a meditation on how two very separate entities like the visitor and the art piece can affect each other physically but not be aware of the unseen consequences that may follow their physical interaction.

+ more about the work

This work is currently in progress. The documentation and the reserch will be updated soon.

+ about the work

The metamorphosis series consists of four wearable pieces that are a part of an interactive installation. The research into this project starts with the question, “why do adults need to play?” Each garment is inspired by a children's play, and the environments of the installation contain micro or macro images of nature. Walking through the installation, the participants are given space to discover where they fit into the unfamiliar space and a chance to rediscover their bodies with the garments that alter their day-to-day movements.