Reese Betts - Religion, Heritage, and Emotional Vulnerability

Religion, Heritage, and Emotional Vulnerability

an immersive installation in collaboration with Sofia Ortega

Exhibited in a classroom at the University of Missouri in April 2024

This immersive installation aims to express the contradictory nature between the societal perception of memory and the psychological process behind the way memory transforms over time. The works within the installation are arranged in a way that inspires a feeling of nostalgia and underlying anxiety – elements of home are present, but they are overshadowed by the coldness of the space.

The act of emotional vulnerability is vital to each piece, expressed through old diary entries, interpretive dance, and live data on brain activity and facial expression. In each of these pieces I tried something completely new, challenging myself to be vulnerable and leaning into the idea that failure is as necessary a step in life, as it is in the process of creation.

The combination of outdated methods of communication with modern technologies, along with the implementation of interactivity, incites curiosity in the viewer. This installation encourages contemplation on the unreliability of memory, the bittersweet nature of home, and the influence of trauma on our ability to be vulnerable.

Sofia Ortega's pieces within the exhibition are hanging fiber installations that act as a canvas for projection. Their works draw attention to the importance of religious symbols in Venezuelan culture, in both an appreciative and critical lens. Religious elements such as a rosary, the cross, and la Virgen de Valle are referenced in this installation, incorporated alongside old family photos and videos.

Sofia and I decided to dress the space with elements of home: furniture, family photos and heirlooms, and hanging lace and ribbon. This installation was on display in the Arts & Science building at the University of Missouri on April 30, 2024 as part of an upper-level Digital Storytelling course taught by Professor Katina Bitsicas.

the Theater

Interactive Projection & Performance Art (Live)

This project is an interactive projection utilizing Touch Designer and an EMOTIV EPOC headset to animate vectors based on live data on brain activity and facial expression. The round composition, the transparent overlapping color masks, and the animated vein-like line work are inspired by bilateral corneal RK scans, relating to the idea that the eyes are the window to the soul.

While wearing this headset in the performance during the installation, my brain was reacting to the stimuli of another projection piece, which included dash cam footage of interpretive dances I performed in wide-open spaces where trauma once ensued. My brain’s reaction to processing the reclamation of these spaces is an intimate expression of emotional vulnerability.

Process

Research & Animation

Untitled Dash Cam Dance

Projection & Performance Art (4:30)

This project is a compilation of sporadic interpretive dancing with dash cam footage, meant to represent the reclamation of traumatic public spaces.

The music used in the piece is distorted choral music that I once sang as part of a larger group and other music that I grew up with.

Process

Music (Distorted and clipped)

Weep O Mine Eyes by John Bennett (1599)

Great God Almighty arr. S. V. Gibbs (2013)

Breathe (In the Air) by Pink Floyd (1973)

Morse Beads

Hanging Fiber and Augmented Reality Installation

This project uses over 1,200 paper beads, which were made over the course of about a week from discarded academic magazines. Snippets of phrases were taken from an old diary, translated, arranged in a timeline, and color coded. Blue phrases are honest, pink/red phrases dishonest or misinformed, and yellow phrases are panicked.

The AR feature allows viewers to line up the text with the beads and decipher the code in real time, allowing for a sense of discovery and welcoming them into my vulnerability.

Process

Fabrication

I first discovered this technique when my grandma gave me a pair of her old earrings from the 80s. Some people say that this paper bead technique is derived from an old Victorian social tradition, in which women would gather to craft them on knitting needles from wallpaper scraps with beeswax. Beads like this could have been used in curtains, room dividers, and were even soaked in perfume to become scented jewelry. I did decide to use the knitting needle method, but I used all-purpose glue sticks instead of beeswax.