MADI BOYD

Produced in collaboration with neuroscientists at UCL, Beau Lotto and Mark Lythgoe, this work is art and science; we intend it as an experiment in the gallery. It manifests as an immersive environment consisting of a ‘screen’ which is a large gridded space of uncertainty and projected film.The project came about after I undertook a period of research of the human visual system and neuroesthetics and set up a collaboration with Professor Mark Lythgoe and Dr Beau Lotto at UCL. I gained Wellcome Trust and Arts Council funding and led the project culminating in the installation ‘The Point of Perception’ (2009-13), which has since been exhibited at eight public venues in Britain and Europe, including The Science Museum, and, since 2014, has toured to the USA, China, Malaysia, New Zealand, Germany and will be in Venice in 2019. While resident at the UCL labs, as part of the collaboration, I had regular meetings with the scientists and their teams. During these discussions, the question arose whether there is a tipping point for ambiguity in perception, a critical mass of visual information when form emerges. I felt that this would be the most interesting place for the mind, the point of highest attention and a place it cannot rest as it attempts to resolve the visual information supplied to it. This became the central focus for the installation The Point of Perception.

In 2013, I developed the work for its presentation in Berlin and Dublin through the use of colour and sound. Sound was created specially for the work by composer Nye Parry.

Below are images and videos of the work at various locations in different versions:

Click links to videos of the work: BBC interview, Interview at the Science Museum, Documentation at ArtLab Berlin