DESCENDANT
Context:
In Descendant, a sculpture is unearthed in the far future. Calcified and preserved in the cement it was cast in, the sculpture rests within a burial plot of some ancient pillar of stone and rebar. The sculpture, found by a diasporic descendant, is recognized for its spiritual properties as a source of healing and retribution in the nkisi nkonde tradition. This is a place to lay ones woes, desires, and contracts (broken or unbroken) in the form of a knot, in hope of healing and justice.
Cement, Projection Mapping, 2026
A sculpture is unearthed in the far future.
Calcified and preserved in its original cast, the sculpture rests alongside fragments of stone and rebar. The sculpture, found by a diasporic descendant, is recognized for its spiritual properties as a source of healing and retribution in the nkisi nkonde tradition.
The sculpture provides place for woes, desires, and contracts, broken or intact, in the form of a knot.
Cement, Projection mapping, 2026
Stripped by the annals of time, the origin is uncertain, the ritual is blurred, and any obvious ties between the descendants and ancestors are nebulous and forgotten.
Even so, an intangible spiritual connection remains.
The descendants preserve some semblance of tradition using their contemporary media.
Cement, Projection Mapping, 2026
Cement, Projection Mapping, 2026
User Experience:
In Descendant, each user is invited to leave their knot on the sculpture. This knot, in the form of a digital sign
or symbol submitted by the user, represents woes, hopes, or oaths left to be remembered.
What may appear as glowing projected graffiti to the uninitiated, is actually a symbol of each memory, pain, promise, dream.
The user will illustrate their knot via tablet submission, and be able to view their knot as it meets the sculpture.
Their contribution is projected in real time, processed utilizing Touch Designer and projection mapping software.
Cement, Projection Mapping, 2026
Objectives:
In Descendant, I interact to interrogate:
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How might we create entry points for ancestral tradition and ritual in an age of digital media?
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How might we design innovative experiences that allow viewers to engage with indigenous ritual and art practice?
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How might we interrogate museum display / information transfer methods?
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How might we use new media and multi media as a decolonial art practice in resistance to Western Judaeo-Christian hegemonic Fine Art canon?
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How might we exhibit indigenous work and ritual as a decolonial art practice in resistance to Western Judaeo-Christian hegemonic Fine Art canon?
Cement, Projection Mapping, 2026