Evanescence is an interactive sculpture exploring the potential for collective transformation of human identity through the generation of a composite face. As a durational installation, it challenges the established set of rules defining individuality. It passively interacts with the audience by capturing the ambient faces in defined intervals of time, gradually carving new profiles over the existing ones. In this process, the artist embraces its unpredictability, allowing it to slowly destroy the conventional understanding of what a face is.

The artwork investigates the overarching areas of control, perception and individuation, and embodies the question posed by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, “How do you make yourself a body without organs?”. In the context of psychoanalysis, they describe us, our bodies, as organized to comply with a certain set of values, the organs symbolising this configuration. By shedding these organs, one is liberated from the societal constraints that dictate behaviour and self-expression.

As individuals come together, they undergo a rebirth of sorts, transcending their original identities. It blurs the boundaries between participants, as they gain a new configuration as a collective entity, undoing their inceptive orientation and melting the conventional roles, types, and images demanded by society.

materials
Clay, Kinect camera, aluminium extrusion, stepper motors, Arduino, custom software