If you think this looks like a 3D version of a Picasso, then you’re not far off. Inspired by the abstract ideas of cubism, artist Bill Shannon created the digital headgear to explore the disconnect between our real and digital selves.
Acting as a “digital face in front of the face”, the mask projects pre-recorded footage of Shannon in different emotional states from an iPod app on to the screens, which are mounted on holders welded to a hard hat. The mask is accompanied by audio of Shannon constantly yelling out status updates!
“We can’t put our whole selves out there,” he says. “Our digital entities are just these scraps of who we are that we put forward to the world and then there’s our real self.”
Created for Pittsburgh’s CREATE Festival, which took place in June, Shannon will also be performing with the mask at the Kelly-Strayhorn Theatre in Pittsburgh in November. “I wanted to do something about technology and humanity,” he says, revealing that the mask builds on his previous work, the “Fragmentation Series”, a live dance performance that used screens to display the same movement at all angles simultaneously.
