Experiments in Art and Technology (and pedagogy)

In the Spring of 2023, I took a course offered by the Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program in the Humanities (IHUM) at Princeton focused on alternative pedagogy. We read extensively about and around experimental schools from the last century, and created opportunities to test their methods.

As a final project, we were asked to teach a 40-minute lesson inspired by a school or pedagogy of our choice, and to submit a written dossier characterizing the ethos and methods of this pedagogy. Playing to my interests in art-science overlaps, I decided to study Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.), which was a group of artists and engineers often credited with founding media art in the 1960s.

My lesson began with a prompt to devise an impromptu collaborative art performance that “makes the invisible visible”. The class formed teams working on visuals, sound, and environment. I supplied handheld thermal cameras, contact microphones, and a portable projector. In advance of class day, I designed and constructed an inflatable mirrored dome that became the literal centerpiece of the lesson, around which an immersive yet enjoyable circus ensued.

The dome was inspired by E.A.T.’s Pepsi Pavilion, Robert Whitman’s plastic “whale” prop from American Moon (start around 15:40, or watch the whole thing), and Andy Warhol’s Silver Clouds. Approximately 10 feet in diameter, it awkwardly swallowed most of our classroom’s volume (by design), pushing occupants to the walls or into its spacious belly. Outside the dome, students recorded infrared footage of a protagonist blow-drying her hair surrounded by sunglassed accomplices; meanwhile, disembodied hands and feet pressed against the soft walls from inside, appearing as distorted, rainbow heat fields. This carried on over a constant racket of crinkling mylar, which was collected by the sound team. Nimble post-processing in sound and video completed the work, enabling us to stitch together fragments and drop a beat.

Constructing the mirror dome

I assembled the dome in my studio well in advance of class day. I told no one about my lesson plans, but arrived at class with a wagon full of equipment and a 10-foot Mylar burrito. I like the kinds of jokes inflatable structures can tell. They take up space so simply and dramatically, rude in their intrusion but also soft and just as easily dismantled, and sometimes kind of beautiful. Note that E.A.T.’s Pepsi Pavilion was not inflatable in the traditional sense, but consisted of flexible mirrored panels held to a rigid outer shell by vacuum pressure.

The dome was slightly damaged in our haste to disassemble it and get on with our respective days. While sewing mylar is effective at holding the structure together, it is easily torn along the seams, but nothing some tape can’t fix. Today, it remains in burrito form in the studio, ready for its next deployment.