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EMPTY SPACE

Year
2008

Author
Laura Beloff

The author created a diverse body of work during the 2000s that explored the concept of networks + humans. These works were often wearable and interactive, examining the social dimensions of networks and the extension of the human subject as a node within a network. One example is Empty Space, a physical vacuum that functioned as a monument or memorial, allowing people to temporarily dedicate the space to the memory of something or someone they had lost.

Beloff also developed the figure of the Hybronaut, which conceptualised the human, technology, and network as a unified entity. This emerged partly as a response to the dominant approaches of the time, which tended to treat humans and technology as separate entities and focused on examining the relationship between the two. Rather than concentrating on the relationship between humans and technology in isolation, Beloff was more interested in how a human equipped with technology relates to and interacts with the wider world and environment.

"Ourlives are full of persons, events and things which completely fill up ourworld and time. These worlds are organized and full until an occasional loss of someone or something leaves an empty space into it. This empty space exists until it gradually fills up again."

The piece consists of wearable transparent capsule, which is constructed as a vacuum. It can be considered as a physical instantiation of an empty space that may occasionally enter our lives. The piece is offered to general public for use. It is thought to be worn within people's everyday lives. The piece is equipped with a networked small screen, which always displays the current (scheduled) dedication of the piece. This means that the general public has a possibility to dedicate the piece temporarily for their own needs. Via an online website one can reserve a date/hour/minute within the 3rd millenium, during which the capsule is dedicated for one's cause; be it private and personal, or an universal cause impacting the entire globe.

The persons who are wearing the Empty Space are volunteering for other people's needs as well as their own. This piece is not able to 'perform' without the participation of the public but is dependent on it. The work is taking place within the everyday life while people are having it in their homes, wearing it on streets and any place they might be situated. The work makes apparent the technologically networked world our lives are entangled in. (Beloff 2008)