Interactive Mixed-Media Installation
The Concept
Dissection of Reality is a participatory exploration of the Anthropocene. The work consists of layers of optically clear glass, each etched with abstracted ecological motifs: deer’s heads, forest, and biological patterns derived from custom C++ generative algorithms. The work takes its title from a philosophical proposition: that reality, like the glass itself, is both transparent and reflective, both revealing and concealing. What appears as a clear surface is also a mirror. What appears as depth is also a surface.
By interacting with the installation’s interface, the viewer controls the illumination of individual strata. This allows for possible visual combinations, turning the act of looking into an act of composition. As panels are lit, changed in colour or dimmed, the forms overlap and recede, creating a dialogue between the viewer’s presence and the fragile, fragmented imagery of the natural world.
The work uses glass as a metaphor for the transparency and fragility of our current ecological state. It challenges the viewer to “dissect” their own reality, choosing which elements of the environment to bring into focus and which to leave in shadow.
Exhibitions
The installation and related generative art prints have been shown at:
- 2022, At The Edge of Safe House, Safehouse 1 & 2, Peckham, London SE15