Sculpture Studio Portfolio (SP10)

Project 2: Kinetics and Interactivity

To explore interactivity, I wanted to focus on an individual’s viewer experience with the sculpture. From this idea I chose a mirror, small enough that only a person’s face would be reflected, and the sculpture eventually formed into the narrative idea of a kind of creature whose face reflects the viewer’s face. To incorporate more of the senses as a type of interactivity, I added hands (molded from my own) that were hinged to either side of the mirror, that a person could pull away to get a better view of the mirror. When touching it, the movement of the mobile would trigger wind chimes to make sound, suggesting either a voice of the creature or a sort of warning.

What I was aiming for was the sort of presence a sculpture of Rebecca Horn has: because it has its own specific movement, that movement and the animation it gives to the lifeless object highly characterizes it. Objectively, I am not sure if my sculpture came off that strongly. Although it suggests a body form, it could have been emphasized more strongly. For example, the wind chime placement under the “backbone” suggests ribs, but that was something that I did not see until it was pointed out to me. So instead, I would warp the wind chimes more in two lines bending towards each other so they look more like ribs and are more definitely going to make noise. The arc is a little to perfect to suggest a backbone, so I might try both adding ridges and making the curve more irregular. As for the small feet and hands, instead of having no line except the fishing line I might add shapes that suggest the beginning of a leg, or knee, or wrist, so that they did not appear to be floating in mid air, which disconnected it more than I expected. In looking into the broken mirror, the scratched-look worked really well, but it made the reflection too dim, so it was easier to focus on the scratches and not the reflection of your face.

But that it was a mobile definitely gave it its own character, as it spun around on its own because of its weight it often seemed like it was looking out on its surroundings, refracting light at the same time. By having to grab a hold of its hands to look into its face, it gave it more of its own character and life then if it were waiting still for the viewing to look into it. Having to grab the hands with your own hands seemed like they were your hands, and made you even more aware of the fact that you were holding and had to hold the object to keep it still. The sound of the wind chimes triggered by touch almost seemed as if it was speaking to you in its own language that you couldn’t understand, telling you about what it sees in your face, almost like some sort of fortune teller—but that you couldn’t understand it made it even deeper and more mysterious. By keeping almost the entire sculpture white and clean, but scratching the mirror up with black and using the same effect on the chimes gave it a sense of both the voice and the face having been slowly destroyed by interacting with so many viewers, suggesting a darkness to the human souls that it is forced to reflect.

IMAGES COPYRIGHT TO CAITIE HARRIGAN