Ghost Variations at David Geffen Hall
Augmented reality sculpture
Available on Snapchat in the Karen and Richard LeFrak Lobby of David Geffen Hall during open hours, as well as globally by searching in Lens Explorer
July 20–August 10, 2024
Commissioned by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in collaboration with Snapchat
Ghost Variations is a collaboration between Alexis Zerafa, creative technologist, and Sophie Kahn, digital artist and sculptor. Visualizing mental health and sound through a Snapchat augmented reality Lens and presented as part of the Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center's season, the installation examines the relationship between the arts and our mental wellbeing. The primary subject of Ghost Variations is 19th century composer Robert Schumann, who, in the final years of his life at a psychiatric asylum, relied on the music of J.S. Bach as he navigated his deteriorating mental health. The busts of Schumann, Bach, and a range of contemporary models, are rendered via larger-than-life augmented reality sculptures. Kahn played Schumann's music under water, recorded the waveforms, and mapped them onto the monumental heads as a visual embodiment of the way that we listen to music. On Snapchat, guests can ‘look through the eyes’ of these figures, whose textures are further animated by ambient sound in the space.
Portrait of t.
3D scanned augmented reality sculpture
Life-size
2022
This monument, Portrait of t., is part of a larger project of 3D scanned, sculptural and AR portraits of people who have undergone life-altering physical transformations.
This artwork depicts multimedia artist tiger west. I asked them to describe the piece in their own words. They write: “tiger presents their body as a divided subject, marked by the collision of cancer and a trans identity. The portrait reveals a truth in embodiment, fragmented parts sculpted into being.”
This exhibition is visible in AR on www.xrensemble.com, and geolocated at Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, as part of the group exhibition Make Us Visible, curated by Katie Peyton-Hofstadter, with XR Ensemble and Pollinate Art. This project superimposes AR artworks by gender-diverse artists over monuments to men. This piece is sited in proximity to the bust of Dr. Alexander J.C. Skene, a man memorialized for his contributions to gynecology.
Spectrality (from the Divers, X)
View online (desktop) and in augmented reality (mobile)
Digital sculpture with AR, 2021
GLB, USDZ, TXT Web browser, iOS, Android, Linux, Windows, Mac
Edition of 200, 1AP
Presented by Feral File for the exhibition
In The Bardo: Unpacking The Real, curated by Julie Walsh
Synthetic-Corporeality
Group exhibition curated by Julie Walsh for Meet Digital Culture Centre, Milan.
Dream-Space
In 2019, I curated this online exhibition of 13 artists. The website is currently undergoing maintenance and will be re-launched later in 2024.
Dematerialized
Solo exhibition in Mozilla Hubs (can be viewed in a VR headset or in the browser), 2021
To visit the exhibition now please click here