Asmodeus

Collaborators: Rita Cheng
Date: December 2017
Materials: Wood, Paper, PCB, 3D Printed Resin, Teensy3.6, LEDs, and a variety of sensors

The LGBTQIA community has often been compared to beasts and devils for its “sinful” behavior. In this performative sculpture, gay shame is explore by embodying the derogatory, a devil, to reclaim this identifier through spectacle and highlight the discrepancies between audience perception and reality.

The piece is an electronic sound platform which functions as a stage, pedestal, and drum surface. The performer is both subject and object to be consumed. The performance and platform play with the formers  identity and the way the performer is identified by the audience. They begin on all fours, submissive. As the performance progresses, they move to a more upright position, expressing their subjectivity.

Each copper PCB plate embedded in the platform surface  triggers a specific sound when touched. There are thirty-two touch sensors in total. The mask was custom fit through body scanning and 3D printed in rose tinted clear resin. The mask and harness have body sensors which change the the composition of the sound through self directed gestures of violence and changing posture.