VAULT

2020

VAULT is an intimate, pitch black void, housed within a domed structure.

Informed by contemporary therapeutic techniques, neurology, hypnosis, and ritual practices, this sensory deprivation experience uses synesthetic technologies, including touch-based sound (bone conduction transducers) and sound-based sight (audio-triggered lights) to confuse your normal perception of your senses, and bring the interconnectedness of mind, body, and surroundings into focus.

In total darkness, wearing earplugs, participants lie down and place the transducer (white and silver object pictured above) on their foreheads. They use the media player (blue object) to control the experience’s pacing, as they are guided into an internal awareness and asked to transmute that sensation into something else. Past participants have given shape to their anxiety, felt pink fluid filling their body, made changes to upsetting details of traumatic memories, cried, and more.

Made w/ support from Laboratory Residency & Spokane Create in Spokane, WA

96 x 96 x 102 in.

aluminum, carpet pad, felt, velcro, plywood, hardware, liquid rubber, bed, bone conduction transducer, mp3 player, amplifier, recorder, microphone, light organ, led lights, cables, ear plugs

In order to judge the impact of the piece and improve it in the future, I asked participants to give me feedback on their experience in the form of this questionnaire. Here are some of their responses:

The part about imagining/ remembering a scenario, and then imagining how I would change the situation was powerful. I remembered a traumatic experience I had in a public swimming pool locker room, and the darkness of the vault really helped me remember the wetness of the floor and how much worse it made that traumatic experience. I imagined that the floor was made of dry wood instead of wet tiles.

Lower back

Some instructions were a bit hard to understand, I had a hard time picturing some of the things mentioned . Maybe repeating the instructions would be helpful.

I cried - was I meant to - I didn’t see that coming

Right above my appendix - I think where my gut and my heart meet

It all worked for me - the instructions could have been a little clearer. The pause.

This was very empowering. I’ve been struggling with stress/ tenderness/ heart pain lately due to a loved one with depression, navigating relationships, and how deeply I love. I feel this helped me turn pain I’ve been feeling into frustration I could let go of (+ see how I could do this more in the future) + replenish myself with love. I visualized a black smoke swirling + leaving my chest + being refilled with a white/ pink liquid in my chest cavity.

my sternum + heart space

The audio was hard to hear @ beginning but then got better or I adapted

mid back, left side, just out of reach

the pain dissipated when I destroyed the vizualization

I loved it. Very peaceful. I enjoyed the train feel of everything. I find trains very peaceful. Sort of an urban/ city meditative feel. Neo-guilded age in a way. Scientific mysticism. I think if I had been meditating more frequently I could have gone deeper. This made me aware of my own personal need for more meditative work.

lower back & neck

The [?] vibration was very food. Slow flow ++ I was a little could & the smell of the inside sometimes took me out of it.

Powerful experience, grounding & moving.

at the base of my neck/ upper shoulders

The darkness, the vibration of the speaker. It all worked

Immersed in blackness without form: but with a sense of stillness and peace, sounds south thought… In some cases no specific thought, in other ruminations of past events — but none related to current problems.

In thinking about my body, soreness in the region behind the hip came to mind — a real sensation that seemed to subside

The feeling that the world was mine and I could drift within it without anxiety or fear — it was a subtle experience — not a big or earth shattering event — a space and time of free thought

Thank you for the experience. It took me back into meditation memory. It was relaxing. It felt spacious within my head.

Right low back and hip

The voice was soothing. I really liked the pulses

I really liked that it worked to create a feeling you can return to and a thing or being you could hold onto + that it worked with the third eye to make you more aware than usual + more relaxed + calm. It felt safe + comforting.

my chest, in my solar plexus

Breathing as instructed, very deeply + from my chest worked the best. When I had my eyes closed + focused only on the voice it was best.