Wandering World

Artists Statement: An outcome of Sala Wong and Peter Williams' remote collaboration of technology-augmented walking, Wandering World is an interactive animation and sound installation and nature morte-spectacle. The piece amplifies and distills Wong and Williams' shared states of (dis)embodiment, (dis)connection and (dis)orientation in the wake of global changes such as Brexit and the 2016 US Election. Situated in different geographic (and predominantly political) locations (California and Indiana, USA), the artists simultaneously walked, connected to each other and world events through mobile technologies and using 360-degree, omnidirectional cameras to capture images of their respective surroundings. Amassed and whirling within concentric, virtual spheres, flowers compete for attention as photographic subject matter - displacing any semblance of focal point, compositional or pictorial consideration. Visitors to Wandering World are offered helium balloons and invited to wander the installation space. As they do so, the stereoscopic, 360-degree and projection-mapped animations fall upon the balloons' surfaces, producing a continuous flow of physical and virtual spaces. An uneasy contemplation, the images, interactions and sounds presented in Wandering World express a desperate and self-defeating attempt at obliterating our collective, perpetual states of distraction.

Artist(s): Peter Williams, California State University Sacramento
Sala Wong, Indiana State University