Maya - Veil of Illusion

September 1st, 2002 - March 28th, 2003

Categories: MFA Thesis, Sound Art, VR Art

About

In Hindu-Buddhist concept, Maya stands for the constant movement of the universe, so powerfully masking the essence of all matter that the phenomenal world of reality can only be perceived behind a “veil of illusion”.

The virtual environment of Maya solely materializes a communication interface, whereby the space in between scales down to one single layer, an elastic membrane that is spanned between the two remote users.

Processing and interpreting the data of camera images, it becomes a tactile surface of intermediation that reacts sensitively to every single touch of the user. Each site presents both users interfering from both sides of the veil. Yet the representation of the data underlies the play of the veil’s forces, and gets thus continually transformed by system’s capability to interpret users’ interplay and to memorize previous time fragments.

Investigating the ambiguous relationship between the users and their virtual representation, the only layer, through which the two participants can perceive each other, represents the system’s own reflection of their dialogue.

Resources

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