Beyond the Skin Effect
Beyond the Skin Effect is a computer controlled audiovisual installation which visually mediates the emotive space that emerges just before touch. This space exists for only a short instant, arising at the point where external forces from the environment and interior emotions of the person being touched converge. I draw out this space by using sounds of static electricity, generated from rubbing socks on carpet, and a slow motion video of a foot in a woolen sock reaching out to touch a human back. In the video the image of the foot slowly approaches the back but never makes contact, while in the physical space of the installation the static electrical sounds continuously crackle from wool socks laying on a carpeted floor. A past event becomes a continuous action where nothing can be determined unless contact is made. In creating this indeterminate state I address the human emotions of anticipation and apprehension that arise just before one is touched