Slide to Expose

The project explores digital intimacy, privacy, the concepts of life and death online, and ultimately asks how devices, particularly our phones, aid, form, and reshape our perceptions of these experiences. We experience a virtual reality through an infinite sequence of call and response behaviors—posting content, gathering likes and comments, receiving praise, or criticism. Everything we do virtually, whether it’s our intent or not, invites interaction. Our memories, our emotions, our reactions are tied to our devices, and the interplay of ego validation and ego death brings forward an interesting juxtaposition, a flurry of thoughts constantly present at the forefront of our conscious that remain hidden as onlookers virtually pass our feeds and physically pass our bodies.

Experienced as a bedroom, a typically private space, the installation presents itself as a physical still life. As visitors enter the room they’re invited to use their phones as augmented reality triggers, scanning the objects of the space, and exploring the room to find private displays of a digital consciousness that secretly overlays the objects. Scanning a pillow creates a text message, scanning a mug generates an email, each, together, creating a second living layer in a constant state of fragmentation and regeneration. An infinite cycle of new life and immediate death all in one space.

AR exhibition, 2017
Refrakt Collective

Exhibited at:
Babycastles, New York City, USA
Junior High, Los Angeles, USA
Brighton Digital Festival, Brighton, UK
Today Art Museum, Beijing, CN
Museum der bildenden Künste, Leipzig, DE
Cyfest, St. Petersburg, RU
Humber Street Gallery, Hull, UK
Kunsthalle Mainz, DE

In collaboration with Molly Soda and Nicole Ruggiero 
3D scans by The Collection, Lincoln & Oliver Laric

Slide to Expose is the winner of the
Founder’s Award of the 2017 Lumen Prize

Press: artefakt, felt zine, widewalls