[ISEA2015] Paper: Karen Cochrane, Prophecy Sun, Kristin Carlson, Maria Lantin & Thecla Schiphorst — Mother, Body, and Weather: An Artistic Exploration of Transcending the Physical Experience of Motherhood

Abstract (Long paper)

Keywords: Video, art installation, Experience Prototyping, Rasaboxes, RSVP Cycles, ritual, improvisation, Bodyweather, dreams, embodiment, performativity.

Echoes of Balance and Push is an immersive video art installation that explores how a new mother’s daily life relates to tumultuous and unpredictable experiences of weather. This paper describes an interdisciplinary collaboration between the authors, who are artists and researchers. The researchers in tandem with the artist explored the creative process and experience of viewing Echoes of Balance and Push. Through the lens of an iPhone, an improvisatory experience of maneuvering a large weather balloon in the open elements creates the environment for exploring struggle in relationships to motherhood. We describe the design process and results of the work through concepts of Experience Prototyping: using methods of Rasaboxes, RSVP Cycles, ritual interaction, improvisation, and Bodyweather performances. Echoes of Balance and Push presents an exploration of improvisatory performance art through a perspective of design prototyping in order to highlight the creative process of a sensorial-based art practice.

  • Karen Cochrane is a Masters of Science candidate in the School of Interactive Arts + Technology at Simon Fraser University (Canada) with Dr. Thecla Schiphorst. She is interested in the intersection of movement, embodiment, and health; especially in the domain of mental health recovery.
  • Kristin Carlson is an Assistant Professor in the Arts Technology Program at Illinois State University (USA) and is currently completing her PhD in the School of Interactive Arts + Technology at Simon Fraser University (Canada) with Dr. Thecla Schiphorst. She is interested in the role computation can play in further understanding creative process in choreography, art and design.
  • Dr Thecla Schiphorst is Associate Director and Associate Professor in the School of Interactive Arts + Technology at Simon Fraser University (Canada) . Her background in dance and computing form the basis for her research in embodied interaction, focusing on movement knowledge representation, tangible and wearable technologies, media and digital art, and the aesthetics of interaction.
  • prOphecy sun just completed her Master of Applied Arts at Emily Carr University of Art + Design (Canada) with Dr. Maria Lantin. Her interdisciplinary performance practice treads together both conscious and unconscious choreographies, sound, and environment, to create exploratory works that invoke deep body memory and draw from an interior landscape of dreams. Video: prOphecy sun in Art Talking Women
  • Dr Maria Lantin is Director of Research and the Stereoscopic 3D Centre at Emily Carr University of Art + Design (Canada) . She is interested in the embodied experience of media through the design of installations and technologies that focus on the interplay of immersion and awareness. She is currently with virtual reality and motion capture technologies to study the role of physicality and movement in immersion.

Full text (PDF)  p. 442-449