2018
In the Glow of a Breathing Sphere
June 25 -August 7, 2015
In the Glow of a Breathing Sphere is a site-specific LED installation conceived and built by the interactive design studio B-Reel, accompanied by a program of sound and spoken-word performances by various artists, focusing on relationships among living organisms, technology and the environment.
In his seminal book, Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World, Timothy Morton applies Graham Harman’s Object-Oriented Ontology to describe human-made phenomena of such immense proportions and such profound, irreversible effect on the environment (e.g., carbon emissions and radioactive deposits), that these phenomena escape our comprehension.
Art is one, if not the only, discipline which might allow us to sneak a peek at the immeasurable nature of these processes. In Timothy Morton’s own words, “Hyperobjects are thinkable but not exhausted by (human) calculation. Art that evokes hyperobjects must therefore deal with their necessarily uncanny intimacy and strangeness.”
The centerpiece of the exhibition is Prana, a room-sized interactive sculpture, in which light sequences are triggered by participants’ breath, visualizing the unseen energies of our bodies. One-by-one, viewers are invited to stand inside the suspended sphere measuring 12 feet in diameter and comprised of 13,221 LED displays encapsulated in 5,422 feet of acrylic tubing. The installation is a metaphor for the dialogue that is still possible between humans and their environment, a technology-enabled meditation guided by the installation’s inexplicable aliveness.
Performance Archive and Soundcloud
Sunday, June 28
Thomas Ankersmit, Konrad Sprenger, Sandy Gordon & Colin Fisher
Thursday, July 2
Stephen Vitiello, Leah Beeferman
Wednesday, July 8
Brian Chase, Leila Bordreuil, Neil Harbisson & Moon Ribas
Wednesday, July 15
Antenes, Daniel Neumann
Thursday, July 16
MV Carbon, Seth Cluett
Tuesday, July 21
Hope Ginsburg & Joshua Quarles, Valentina AK
Wednesday, July 22
Phillip Stearns, Byron Westbrook
Thursday, July 23
Matana Roberts, Maria Chavez
Tuesday, July 28
Steve Roggenbuck
Thursday, July 30
Richard Garet, Bonnie Jones
Listen to all recorded performances
selected press
Gothamist Summer Guide: 20 Things To Do In July
ArtFagCity: This Week’s Must-See Art Events
Creators Project Inhale, Exhale: The LED Sphere that Lights Up Your Breath
Hyperallergic: Breathing Life into a High-Tech, Glowing Sphere
Observer: 9 Things to Do in New York’s Art World Before July 31
Art in America: This week in New York, July 28