BREATH: DYNAMIC INTERACTION BETWEEN VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE
Pepper’s ghost effect: (source: “The World of Wonders” 1865, Image by: ©ARCHIVE PHOTOS/GETTY IMAGES)
Pepper’s ghost effect (source: theatreglossary.co.uk)
Reflection Law: (source: https://isb-ibphysics-dawghouse.wikispaces.com/file/view/law_ of_reflection.gif/43950037/law_of_reflection.gif)
My work is inspired by the technique of Pepper’s Ghost; an illusion effect used in theatre, television, museums, amusement parks and concerts. In this illusion technique, the audience views the stage/room in which ghostly objects fade in and out or the stage/room is visually transformed.It is based on the basic law of reflection (physics, optics), the return of light, heat and sound after reflecting on a surface. Working with mirrors, this happens when a ray of light strikes a mirror, the light ray reflects off the mirror thus changing its direction. The angle of light that approaches the mirror equals the angle of reflection (the light that departs from the mirror). Samuel Beckett’s play “Breath” is a short stage work as it is about 25 seconds. It consists of the first utterances of a crying baby at birth, followed by the sound of inhalation and exhalation accompanied by an increase and decrease in the intensity of the light. There is then a second utterance/cry, and the piece ends. No people are seen on stage but simply the fluctuation of light and the sound. It is an ironic comment. Treading the fine line of minimalism, Beckett manages something that seems impossible: action, plot, logos are all synopsized by breath, light and crying. A drama with no act, a tragedy with no words. But still we are within the realm of the Aristotelian definition of tragedy by the evocation of sympathy and fear in the view allowing access to such emotions. The important and perfect act here is life which is presented completely. The emotions of the viewers are stirred by the allusion to the most primordial agonies of the human being, life and death. Visualizing motion on the white sheet, and wondering what this embodied experience tells me about life, in my installation I used the body as a site of communication even though it is considered absent because it is not physically seen. However, the performer’s body shapes the audience’s experience. Therefore, I created a costume (which covers the body of the performer/ makes the body absent), with mirrors so it could communicate some kind of narrative through its material (Mirror stage /Lacan). This costume was inspired by the works of artists such as Rebecca Horn, Oleg Kulik, Bohyun Yoon and Vinny Kuman. Mirrors and the body, make forms which are interesting as the body moves with them and develops shapes and lines. I explored the clothed body as something that produces meaning, memory, embodied experience and communication. I didn’t use real mirrors, but plastic mirror sheets, which are much safer, lighter and produce the exact same result (reflection) as mirrors. I placed a projector in front of the performer and played a video. I chose to use filmic video because according to Lacan, films have their roots in the mirror stage and the real is based on fantasy and gaze. In cinema (film) the subject is formed through the function of the camera as a narrative, the projector and the screen. This video directly hit the mirror surface of the costume and because of the reflection of the light when it meets the surface of the mirror the video was projected onto the white lycra sheet which was placed as a curtain in front. Because the mirror sheets of the costume weren’t all the same shape or dimensions, the reflections had different shapes. When the performer moved (extremely slowly) those “video shapes” moved and created different images through their shapes. Each time the experience was unique as is was based on the different motions of the performer. Through this, the body’s motion refuses a conventional interpretation of the preservation of the “real” body and challenges the audience to follow these shapes beyond the absent dancer through the figurative presence of movement dynamics illustrated by this “digital ghost”. Video reflections are seen as a metaphor for the human body (the costume of the human body), which is finite and disposable. Visitors experience a living projection and and audio (breath and heartbeat are monitored by a heating sensor). The spasmodic movement of the performer is like a game of rhythmic separation and reconnection of images, reflections that appear and disappear from sight, images which are recognized and lost and return once more.
Rebecca Horn, «Berlin Exercises in Nine Pieces» Exercise 6: Rooms Encountering Each Other, 1974 – 1975) (source: Media Art Net. Image: Unknown photographer)
Oleg Kulik, Armadillo for your Show 2003 (source:Tate Modern.I mage: Manuel Vason, 2003)
Bohyun Yoon: (source: designboom magazine. Image: Unknown photographer)
Vinny Kumar: Mirror Man (source: vinnykumar.com. Image: Unknown photographer) 7