Organ Without Body (2019)
How do we create augmented reality by bringing the virtual world into the physical, rather than the other way around? Often nowadays, the concept of AR brings to mind creations like Snapchat filters, and Pokemon GO: screen-based realities that take in camera input and overlay it with virtual assets.
We wanted to deliver AR without the use of the screen, and show the virtual world without really showing it. By bringing it into the physical world, we would be able to make AR a shared experience. Jumping off that, we researched the idea of absence, of what was left behind, and came up with shadows.
In Organ Without Body--the title an inversion of French philosopher Gilles Deleuze’s “body without organs”--we project the shadow of a virtual object in order to show the physicality of its existence. The plinth in the installation setup connotes the placement of an artwork, though it remains empty--physically. In the virtual world, a breathing heart beats atop the plinth, and the audience is clued in to that world by the moving shadow it “casts”. As well, a deep, reverbing heartbeat sound fills the room, as if it were emanating from the space above the plinth. It’s repetitive dialogue grounds the viewer in the scene, and further in reality.
Beyond that, an interactive component exists through the audience’s ability to control the spotlight and subsequently the visible shadow using a game controller. This ability to interact and interface with the object allows the audience to achieve a pseudo-physical feel of the volume of the beating heart, and creates a deeper, more interesting immersive experience.
Created in Unreal in partnership with Ahmed D.
