Cosmic Author, an interactive installation where outlines of participants’ bodies are rendered as stellar constellations.
Cosmic Author
Kinect V2, HD monitor, openFrameworks code
2018
Human cultures throughout history have searched the night sky for meaning. The gods and mythological creatures, animals and objects we saw in the arbitrary positions of stellar bodies pointed to a larger narrative; a timeless history imposed upon us by ancient deities to help us make sense of who we were. The constellations validated the stories we told ourselves. They were cosmic truths, not stories we spun out of whole cloth for ourselves—projections of our own wishes and desires.
Cosmic Author renders literal this process of meaning-making, where the constellations themselves are made up entirely of our own forms. Any significance we might attempt to find in them immediately points back to us. It suggests the world in which we are currently challenged to find meaning, where data-mining algorithms craft personally tailored epistemological bubbles for each and every one of us. We are caught in a feedback loop, looking externally for answers in a world of mirrors.