Inversion at Nuit Blanche

2018

Simoni + Kilty

Our interactive installation uses a live video feed to disrupt participants' connection to place by casting close-up images of their moving feet in a large-scale projection turned upside down. A canvas on the ground records marks of the participants' journey in this experiential installation.

The image of a variety of footware isolated from the body creates an opportunity to recognize our differences and similarities as we move across the space, making comparable marks with our feet. In a city where differences are more prevalent than similarities, our differences become our similarities. In a response to the theme of "You are Here," this experiential installation invites participants to override their societal conventional categories of gender, race or religion, and the gravitational pull of societal constructs. As Earth appears above feet in the image, the inversion suggests disorientation, and draws attention to the distance between the virtual and the real. For many of the hundreds of participants, this installation challenged perceptions by creating a disconnect between the movement of the body and the live feed projection of the resulting movement inverted on a screen.