Local Binaries

Augmented Reality / Virtual Reality, 2022

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Every person you meet holds a world inside them, what does yours look like?

This was the question artist Lauren Moffatt asked nine women from across the world in order to define the blueprints for the collectively written universe inside Local Binaries. This is a virtual space that can be explored by the viewer in miniature scale via augmented reality (this version already exists in a first iteration) or lifesize in the virtual reality version (the virtual reality adaptation is in progress).

Drawing inspiration from therapy techniques that encourage embodied mindfulness – like body mapping – participants were asked to focus on their inner state and interpret it as a landscape. They imagined geological forms, sounds, plant-life, weather systems and architectures to delineate the physiological and psychological sensations they felt. They then relayed the scene to the artist as if describing physical surroundings. The artist recreated elements from each testimonial using a game engine, collaborated with artificial intelligence to visualise, hand-paint and digitise the described elements and then interweavied them into a sprawling landscape that audiences can interact with via handheld devices. Made with support from Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Rijeka and from CPH:DOX Lab.