Deputised objects

Mosley, Jonathan; Warren, Sophie; Soares Martins, Diogo

Abstract

RESEARCH STATEMENT - draft for forthcoming folio

Originality
Deputised Objects is an interactive installation documented through a film, developed in the context of the architectural/art/psychological transdisciplinary research project titled Psychostructures. The output applies one method of an innovative set to explore the psychological subjectivity of a building. It asks:
1.How the mute forms of a designed object can embody aspects of the psychology of a piece of architecture, thereby becoming its ‘deputy’;
2.How motion-sensing electronics and digital projection of a virtual animated ‘double’ of the deputy can generate empowerment, enhance relation and play of movement between humans and choreographic architectural objects;
3.How a performer can adapt and respond to architectural form and complex mutating relations with and between the physical and digital entities.


Significance
Developed from psychologist Winnicott’s concept of ‘transitional objects’ and referencing practitioners Lygia Clark, William Forsythe, etc. the works gains contemporary significance using entanglement and New Materialist thinking to explore more-than-human relations. Giving architecture a psychological subjectivity and the interactive triad of human, digital projection and physical object takes motion-based exploration into new realms. Deputised Objects was generated from a residency and psychological profiling of Oscar Niemeyer’s seminal French Communist Party Headquarters buildings, funded by Artist International Development Fund, laureateship of Institut Français and AHRC Impact Accelerator award. So far, the film has been presented at Synergies architectural research conference, Graz; Random group exhibition, Azan Contemporary Art, Lisbon.


Rigour
The psychological profiling of the headquarters resulted from triangulation between data from a family tree of the building, psychodynamic therapy with stand-ins, psycho-social method ‘Visual Matrix’ and movement method ‘Days of Action’. This enabled an iterative development of the form of the object in conversation with the evolving understanding of the architecture’s subjectivity, seeking to address research question 1. The electronics and their operation were created using an Arduino board and Unity software registering X, Y, Z axes position and movement. The board was tested within the physical object and a wearable unit on the viewer. Unity allowed the delaying of response and the re-orientation of all axes so the power relation of ‘what was controlling what’ was explored (question 2). The performer first entered the installation unbriefed and improvised in response to various Unity settings. Movement was documented, analysed, selected, re-enacted and refined for further filming, addressing question 3.

• Digital Artefact Type: Video
• Online Publication Date: May 20, 2025
• Publication Date: Sep 12, 2024
• Deposit Date: May 20, 2025
• Keywords: Architecture psychology transitional objects interaction choreography
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/14452363
• Related Public URLs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0E0hIJEe8s
• Additional Information: Film: Diogo Soares Martins, Sophie Warren, Jonathan Mosley.; Art installation: WARREN + MOSLEY.; Psychological profiling by PSYCHOSTRUCTURES:; JONATHAN MOSLEY, SOPHIE WARREN, DR. LITA CROCIANI-WINDLAND, NIGEL WILLIAMS.; Performer: YOLA PINTO.; Cinematography: DIOGO SOARES MARTINS.; Sound: SOUNDFORCE STUDIO.; Electronics + coding: TOM GARNE, BRISTOL UWE.; Digital modelling : PATRICK THORNHILL, BEN STARLING, JOSÉ CORNEJO, BRISTOL UWE.; 3D printing: JACK THE MAKER.; Film location courtesy of TOMAZ HIPOLITO, AZAN STUDIOS, QUINTA DE MOLHA PÃO.
• External URL: https://youtu.be/PuUWQz_JYTI
• Genre: Documentary / artist film