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This is a large scale project I am working on currently. The project is funded by Kone säätiö 2024-2026.​

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Human Boxing-Unboxing: a Social Identity Rebirthing machine

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Human Boxing-Unboxing is an art installation, where participants are sent through an experience of letting their social identity (not to be confused with personal identity) die and be reborn with a new one. The cross-disciplinary project is a combination of art installation, media art, portrait photography, participatory performance and spatial storytelling combined with XR.

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The artist collective has been working on this project for a while. After discussion with social psychology scientists, we shifted the attention on social identity. Our earlier work had focused on identity through the body, as observed from a third person view, but a whole new layer of VR’s power was unleashed after the dualistic approach to personal vs. social identity.

 

The main motivation for the project is a brutal view on the human body. Many societies regard bodies as disgusting, something to be covered. Especially the female body that is equipped to give birth, is seen as disgusting- menstruation and not to mention the bodily fluids that revolve around sexuality. However these disgusting bodies of ours are the core of our identities. In the clinical metaverse however,  there are no human bodies and we can exist solely through our social identities. This revelation of dualism turns the art piece into a medical instrument: separating the identities into personal and social. Personal identity is left as a gooey mess tied into a cocoon and beaming the social identity into distinct visual elements in VR.

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This project is a big one and I am proud to be part of it. We start in 2024 - stay posted. 

Team:

Tassinari Matilde, Elovainio Reko, Is Tanja, Vartiainen Elina Miina and Jasinskaja-Lahti Inga, Aapro Wesa

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