Phantom Body - STEVEN R. TABOR

Phantom Body

What does a thought look like?

Suzanne Dikker and Matthias Oostrik, in cooperation with Suzan Tunca and Than van Nispen, created an art installation entitled "Harmonic Dissonance: Phantom Body" at the Lakenhal Museum in Leiden. In this installation, visitors walk in front of large screens which capture, rework and present their images in ways that are connected to their thoughts. Movements, previous images, and interactions with others are also included in each of these machine-processed-portraits. The artists are pioneers in what is described as biofeedback art. They describe their work as follows: "Our work is an ongoing search for intuitive algorithms and imaginations representing human contact".

This series was shot with my cell phone. When I entered the exhibition, there were a group of three young German women who were enthralled by the exhibition. They were posing, swaying and were in a near-trance state in front of these screens. At first, I shot their portraits from a discete distance. Then I moved quite close to the subjects who paid me no attention at all, since they were completely at one with these machines.

If you'd like to see the full series, download the PDF photobook here.