Week 5 (tri2) - Embodied Experiences & An Immersive Installation
- Julia Toczyska
- Feb 25, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 21, 2025
We started today with an unusual task. We were asked to create an immersive installation exploring a theme of our choice. As a whole class we then began to split ourselves into different roles - people who will work in the studio setting up all the equipment, and the content production team who will take care of creating the content for this mini exhibition. We had roughly two hours to prepare and present the exhibition.
Artist Research
Before we began our work we had a look at some fascinating artists as some sort of a starting point. First we looked at Ryoji Ikeda, who is a Japanese artist known for his unique approach to sound and digital media in immersive installations. What is particularly fascinating about Ikeda's work is his direct and confrontational approach to the user experience. His visuals, characterized by monochrome colour palettes, are extremely satisfying, exemplifying the notion that "less is more." His work is confrontational, bold, exciting, but also relaxing at the same time. Not only the visuals, but also the music itself is extremely confrontational, it makes you feel something beyond, both physically and mentally.
Another artist we looked at is Pipilotti Rist, a Swiss artist known for her dreamlike video installations that blur the lines between dream and reality. Rist's work explores themes of abstraction, inviting us to imagine worlds beyond our everyday existence and the many forms life can take. She uses large scale projections and soft beanbags that allow audiences to fully immerse themselves in her unique artistic realms. Rist's work feels deeply intimate and personal, not just through the imagery, but also the interactive approach that encourages viewers to lie down and become one with the experience.
Looking back, our exhibition was indirectly largely inspired by both Ikeda's and Rist's work. I loved the personal approach from Rist through the use of bean bags, and the confrontational look and feel of Ikeda's works - to me their works are truly what an immersive installation should look and feel like.
Planning
Going back to the installation itself, I was the part of the content production team, and as we began brainstorming we settled on the idea of creating a "exposure therapy" themed exhibition. Our goal was to represent different phobias. The goal was to make the exhibition unsettling, disturbing, awful in the good way. However, before we began working we had to establish what phobias to cover, our last intent was to trigger anyone present around us. We settled on asking everyone what their phobias are so that we could make sure the exhibition is as inclusive as possible. After writing down what we should avoid, we settled on creating a video based on Arachnophobia. After doing so we got to work!
We firstly looked up videos we could borrow on YouTube, because of the time constrains it was impossible for us to go out search for spiders around the campus. We ended up finding multiple videos we were happy with, and later merged them in Adobe Premiere Pro, just to make it our own.
Videos We Used
Final Installation
Once we were finished with the assembling of the video, and everything was set up in the studio, we were ready to put everything together and experience the "Exposure Therapy" ourselves! the room was set up very simply, fake walls all around the projector to make the space appear intimate and claustrophobic. There was a bean bag on the floor that would allow people to sit down and enjoy this unsettling experience.
Showcase
Throughout the installation being live, I have recorded a fun little video showcasing how the exhibition looked like as well as peoples reactions to it. Hope you enjoy! It was an extremely stressful mini project due to the time constrains and the large team we had (the whole digital media class!) - but I loved every second of it, especially with how spontaneous it was. I got to deeply explore my own creativity, and collaborate on something unique.
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