Haptic Skins of a Glass Eye, merges references to affective computing, flat design, haptic technology and virtual design systems with historical and medieval studies of the glass delusion. This condition was an external manifestation of a psychiatric disorder recorded in Europe in between the 15th to 17th centuries. The first clear glass, cristallo, was invented 15th century, and it was around this time that the glass delusion was first reported. People feared that they were made of glass, pottery and wood and therefore likely to shatter into pieces. In modern times, the glass delusion has disappeared, accounts of people believing themselves to be materials have been replaced with the development of neurological terminology such as hypochondria. 

In combining film, performance, Sound and installation, the exhibition unpicks the corporal dialect of the contemporary body and reveals the relationship we have to it as both an advanced and primal signifier. In the wake of our conflicting relationship to the virtual, advancements in technology have left a messy physiological residue. The link between language, surface, technologies and the body is a compelling subject and the basis of my on-going research. 

Crew

Gaffer Tom Nowell Operator Ilona Sagar and Tom Nowell, Sound design Seth Scott, Voice mix Doug Haywood, runners Sebastian Nowell, Simina Neagu, Amy Nickolls and Clare Armiger

 

Cast

 

voice over Penelope McGhie and Gately Freeman; screen actors Jon Campling, Kitty Fredorec and Anoushka Jago; glassmaker Jochen Holz. 

 

Thanks to 

The British Library Manuscripts Image Archive; Chisenhale Art Place Studios; STO Werkstatt and Bowers & Wilkins for their support. 

Professor Paul Fletcher Psychiatrist and Professor of Health Neuroscience, Cambridge University; Dr Stephen L. Hicks, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Oxford; Professor Edward Shorter History of Medicine and Psychiatry at the University of Toronto; glassmaker specialist Jochen Holz.