Project 3

Project #3

This project was created after I read a news story detailing the recent discovery that a great number of vegetative state patients are actually fully aware and capable of communication, although physically unable to express it. In response to questions the doctors would ask, patients were told to recall a memory of movement (such as a soccer game) to denote ‘yes’, or a memory of an unmoving thing (such as an apple) to mean ‘no’. Using MRI scans, the doctors were able to see what part of the brain lit up in direct response to questions such as, “Is your name Tom?” or “Are you married?”, leading them to believe that this sort of communication was possible in a large percentage of patients.
This amazing revelation in the scientific community made me think a lot about interior space, communication, and the idea of self. I produced an all-white sculpture for the back of the Intermedia classroom that was roughly the size and shape of a person with a hole in the top, with a mirror rotating inside of it. On the inside walls of the piece were images of bright abstract colors that were reflected off the mirrors and visible to the viewer. The wires of the piece were suspended outside of the structure.
I wanted to make something that was not entirely understandable, the shape itself suggesting a human form, but not directly. The images suggest a part of the interior space, or an MRI, and the wires suggest the state of a wired patient. By putting it in our classroom, it is something that was accessible to all of us, not just the medical community.