[ISEA2004] Artist Statement: Diana Burgoyne – THE BODY (W)HOLE: FOLK ART IN AN ELECTRONIC AGE

Artist Statement

WEARABLE EXPERIENCE

In The Body (W)hole, two performers each wear a shirt with a camera in the front and a monitor placed on the back. As they interact with each other, the camera and monitors create the illusion of light passing through each performer’s body.

The performers move though a space with hidden tight sources and videos projected into the space which only appear on the monitors when the performer moves into the projected beam. Infra-red light – unseen by the naked eye – will however be visible to the camera/monitor shirts.

A second element of the piece uses the camera inserted into the shirt as a data collector. Each one of the camera’s 36 photocells will stream data onto the Scrambled Bytes website. Once there the data can be retrieved, mapped and placed in a new context by anyone accessing the site.

The Body Whole is an example of electronic folk art. I have created a camera using photocells and a monitor using LEDs. The material is assembled not on a circuit board but ‘freehand’, allowing the colours, shapes and lines of the electronic components to dictate the aesthetics of the piece. Assembling the material in this way creates a work that appears hand-made — an attempt to humanize the sanitary technology-materiel. This work meets the criteria for
folk art by using materials and information available at Radio Shack, at a cost of about $20.00. With only a little soldering experience the piece could be created by anyone.

  • Diana Burgoyne (CA) has exhibited in the USA, Canada, and Europe and recently completed a residency at the Western Front Gallery as part of Scrambled Bites. She teaches ‘Creative Electronics’ at Emily Carr I.A.D. and is pursuing a Ph.D. in Interactive Arts at Simon Fraser University.

Full document (PDF) p.85