Dear Earth: The Three of Me?

Abstract

This research addresses the question of how to represent the incoherent self. It arises from my own experience of living with manic depression, and my sense of alienation from common rhetorical and figurative devices employed to express the unified self. I argue that the incoherent self can only be represented through the subversion of such devices, positing a novel framework of ‘the three of me’ in opposition to the singular self. The instantiation of this ontology takes the form of an audio visual installation. Dear Earth: The Three of Me? uses randomised algorithms to perform animations of my own eye in a way that defies the coherence of narrative. As a live work it embodies the modalities of ‘the three of me’, resisting any recourse to solipsism. Dear Earth’s most salient contribution to the field of media arts is its modelling of one manifestation of mental illness within an interactive digital work. It is a considered and coherent response to the question of how to represent the incoherent self.