Abstract: In a medieval fable, the sun goes on a journey to find its source. The moon is left weeping without her lover’s warm gaze. The sun’s identity, devotedly offered in the mirror of moonlight, is sought elsewhere. Indeed mirrors, once among alchemists’ best guarded secrets, have carried powerful capacities since antiquity. One’s reflection is a window into how others perceive us: a rupture between ourselves as subject and object of experience. In this survey, mirrors become an allegory for the complexities of selfhood. From the lenses of psychology, neuroscience, art, and technology, the multisensory dimensions of the internal, the external, and the mutual, are delved into. From obsidian relics to dark magic algorithms capturing one’s essence to render immersive mirages, we will take a walk into the obscure space beyond our reflection.
Biography: Marte’s work is done with and in gratitude to beautiful others. It delves into the malleability and externalization of the self. This academic practice occurs in affiliation with the i_mBodyLab of the DEI Interactive Systems Group at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, and the Experimental Psychopathology and Psychotherapy group of the University of Zurich.
