On Tuesday April 9, 2013 three CARTA students- Andrew Trelease, Gilbert Kong, and Elizabeth Hiciano- performed “i” in front of the Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum. It was part of the FIU school of music’s Experimental Music and Arts class headed by Dr. Jacob Sudol, Yasik Kolasinski, and Jason Calloway.
“i” is a live installation whose purpose is to spark dialogue concerning the social and psychological effects of modern digital technologies. The center of the piece is a silver column with an LCD screen that played a video of the three performers sitting around a rosemary bush. In the video, a slowed dull colored playback, the performers casually interact. Around the column the three performers sat, hunched over, and motionless with silver tubes extending from their lower back to the center column. They were covered in silver paint while donning silver masks a top their heads. A few feet away from them the real rosemary bush on top of a stool.
The video is representative of a shared virtual experience where the senses are suppressed, hence dulling the connection between the human animal and nature. The metallic silver paint alludes to a loss of humanity as we perceive each other as just extensions of mechanical devices. Another concern is that, with a virtual view of the world, an understanding of real world consciences may be lost. All of technology is scrutinized from communication devices and social media to social engineering and resource management.