ABOUT DOMEWORLD…

Domeworld is a nascent Dreamscape – a virtual predecessor of a physical environment.

Sensory shock often works as a unifying and unmitigated factor of existence. Other unifying factors could be desensitization as a defense mechanism, escapism in its myriad forms as a coping mechanism and alienation from one’s own sensorium as a consequence.  

Modern living is a series of fragmentary, phantasmagoric experiences which wear down the senses and compromise realizations of the self as well as the superstructures we exist in.

Initially I was designing a physical geodesic structure, a multi-sensory micro-environment where people could gather. The dome would represent the womb in psychodynamic theory. The dome as an environment is significant to me as it obstructs the visual continuity which we are used to, of living within cuboid structures – the apartment block, the house, the office, the bus, the train and most other institutional spaces we inhabit. A change in one sensorial reality affects the totality of the sensorium as it functions. An example of this is the way in which our hearing becomes heightened when we travel to an unfamiliar location like the countryside or an ekstasis takes place. We notice the sounds of the insects and birds in a way we did not before.

 Using different sensory techniques such as soundscapes and spatial alterations open up possibilities of sensorial reconstitution, or undoing sensorial alienation. Sound in particular is significant to me as the way we process it is entirely different to the way we process visuals – it is simultaneous as opposed to purely linear. Sound has been used throughout the ages in spiritual practice to aid transitional states of being. Within my own practice, through the digital and virtual domain, I am exploring this notion and what it means in the contemporary age.

In essence I want to create a space which is conducive to an improved well-being, zones of respite in a world of innumerable traumas. It strikes me that human well-being is extremely low on the list of priorities within this capitalist system.

With the dawn of the Coronavirus our relationships with the physical world and with each other have rapidly changed. In these times of social distancing we have reduced access to the recreational zones which exist in physical reality. I am exploring what constitutes an ‘environment’ in the virtual domain. We have existed in this cybernetic jungle since long before the virus struck; how do our environments exist there? How do we exist inside them?  We are collectively finding out.