Aliyah Marr: The Book of Hours

Artist(s):

• Aliyah Marr

Title:

The Book of Hours

Exhibition:

• SIGGRAPH 1999: technOasis

Creation Year:

1999

Medium:

Interactive CD-ROM

Category:

• Interactive & Monitor-Based

Keywords:

• interactive CD-ROM
• memory
• history

Artist Statement:

The Book of Hours is a non-narrative interactive multimedia piece named after the famous “Book of Hours” popular as a book of devotion in the Dark Ages.

An assemblage of original paintings, photographs, sounds and video clips, the nine “scenes” evoke a feeling of melancholy at the passage of time, loss, the bittersweet of memories, and the realization of personal mortality. The nine scenes develop at the viewer’s pace, with hints of discovery and revelation, culminating in an interactive maze. The maze was an important symbol of the Middle Ages, representing life’s journey, and was often painted on the floor of cathedrals. Completing the maze in this piece closes the circuit; the viewer ends up back at the “beginning”.

The original Book of Hours was a source of prayers and meditations, to be executed by the devotee at certain hours and in certain seasons. My Book of Hours is meant to be likewise cyclical, feminine in form, non-linear and meditative.

Affiliation Where Artwork Was Created:

MDA/newMedia Forge