Bat POV (If I could by gradual degrees be transformed into a bat)

We don't have one/I will be very soon, 2018The Tett Gallery, Kingston, ON


Bat POV (If I could by gradual degrees be transformed into a bat) is a critical yet playful engagement with themes sourced from Thomas Nagel’s seminal text “What is it like to be a bat?” (1974): exploring the need for, and possibility of, developing an objective phenomenology to describe the subjective character of experiences in a set of terms or form that is comprehensible to those incapable of having said experiences. Bat POV examines the ultimate futility of attempts to employ such a phenomenology, specifically when approached through the seemingly neutral body of technology.



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The installation consists of two monitors: the first hosts an interactive program coded in python that prompts users to answer the question “What is it like to be a bat?” and the second screen displays a looped video of Youtube-sourced POV clips posted by roller coaster enthusiasts sharing their experience on the ride “The Bat” in Kings Island Amusement Park, Mason, OH. Scrolling across the bottom of the video is a segment of text sourced from the above-mentioned Thomas Nagel essay, narrated by a computer-generated, androgynous voice.