Rebecca Allen: The Bush Soul
Artist(s):
Title:
- The Bush Soul
Exhibition:
Creation Year:
- 1998
Medium:
- Interactive installation with 3D virtual environments
Size:
- 4' x 8'
Category:
Keywords:
Artist Statement:
The Bush Soul is an interactive art work that explores the role of avatars in a world of artificial life. In a virtual world, the avatar becomes our other body. But what part of “us” is in our avatar?
Certain West Africans believe that a person has more than one soul, and that there is a certain type of soul, called the “bush soul,” that dwells within a wild animal of the bush. A person’s bush soul resides in an animal, though that animal also has a life of its own.
An avatar can serve as a place for the bush soul, following the guidance of the person attached to it, but “alive” with its own set of behaviors. In this work, every object in the environment, including the avatar, is instilled with some form of artificial life.
Relationships can be formed between all elements. Activities and events emerge depending on relationships and interactions: nonlinear, experimental performances, narratives, and music.
The Bush Soul experiments with forms of communication that rely on symbolic gestures and movements. With a focus on the “life” of the virtual environment, this work examines the role of artificial life and human presence in an art form that includes the interactive experience.
Other Information:
Emergence Team
Loren McQuade
Eitan Mendelowitz
Daniel Shiplacoff
Jino Ok
John Northan
Jack Lin
