MEETING IN THE CAVE
From Polarization to Inclusion
The Virtual Matrix
The Virtual Matrix
Metaphors of the real.
The Virtual Matrix metaspace, alike the exoskeleton embodying the Red Book on its medial plane of reflection in the Eye metaspace, and the operatic stage in the Cave venue, charts the archetypal three-layered Matrix at the base of the experienced reality, notably, the higher, the lower, and the middle planes of manifestation marrying the eso, the exo, and the meso consciousness into one single sensory space.
In the Nodal Partners, the Virtual Matrix is a self-contained teleportation three-layered cubic portal of 4 metres of face set on a 4-folded inflowing red carpet encircled by 4 risen violet dishes. From each side of the upper face, alternating silver and golden threads drape down a four-folded illusory curtailed threshold between the inner and the outer metaspace. The silver strands end with a blue bead at the elevation of the middle plane of reflection, while the golden filaments wind-up their red pearls at the shorter segment of the golden section of the its height.
The exo masculine lower face of the virtual matrix consists of a golden square floor which roots its corners into the centre of the four violet risen dishes surmounted by perimetral columns defining the metaspace limits and its four thresholds. At the centre of the golden floor, a phallic pillar screens on one half of its split top a looped clip excerpted from the Cave 3.0 premiere, paired on the other half of the top, by the first page of the Red Book narrative depicting the bidimensional Royal Couple characters in their colourful costumes.
At the upper end of the perimetral columns, the eso feminine face is a silver starred faux-vault ceiling with at the centre a black hole infolding a red pearl. Released from the inflamed gem hovering the middle plane of manifestation, a monitor magic sphere screens the squint scenes taken by an eye-shaped video-cameras sited at the top of each column beneath the ceiling. The images are mixed with fragmented shots streamed from the Eye, from the Cave, and all other virtual metaspaces and randomly elaborated in real-time by a self-asserting algorithm. Visitors and audience familiarize themselves with the anamorphic metaspace and download an app to fill in a questionnaire for a data-driven survey.
On the roof of the Matrix, on the other side of the black hole in the ceiling, a coloured bowed cavea, with a radiant flame at the top, parallels both the Cave venue concave sloped seating enclosure and the flatted cave on the Eye’s celling. Four glowing flares at the corners of the roof bounds the highest register of the virtual metaspace. All mental and emotional constructs.
The Royal Couple, embodied by two actors with the same costume as their bidimensional characters on the Red Book, during their journey of awareness across the ladder of consciousness to and fro’ the Eye and the Cave, the centre and the periphery, the eso and the exo polarities, pay visit to the Nodal Partners and unfold their meso narrative in the Virtual Matrix. At the end of their visit, they exit the virtual metaspace to step again into the real world and resume their journey among the diverse demographics, architectures, soundscapes, histories, languages, idioms and musics of the city on the yellow Bel Air with at the wheel the orang-utang, an endangered species and a previous state of consciousness. Metaphors of the real.
. . .
Altogether, there are 7 Virtual Matrices: 5, are located in the Nodal Partners aligned on the urban area between the Eye and the Cave, and 2, are sited extra muros, overseas and lands: one in Rome, in Italy, and the other in The Hague, in the Netherlands, two autobiographic tokens of the artist’s life.
Additionally, the Virtual Matrix metaspace is the stage setting of the 4th scene unfolding the Cave 3.0 narrative in the Cave venue metaspace.
Visualisation by Kristian Cardiello.
