The TDSO Multiplexor

MATHILDA’S UNIVERSE & JOE

A COLLABORATION

JOE

Joseph A. Corcoran is a glass and neon artist working in the greater DC, Baltimore area. He is interested in systems of interaction and makes work celebrating the repetition and patterns that emerge from chaos when disparate forces act on each other.

MATHILDA

Mathilda’s Universe is a site of fabulation grounded in extrapolative critique. Special relativity, subjectivity, myth and eroticism all play critical roles in the fabric of this umbrella. Mathilda’s multidisciplinary work picks at the porosity of “selfhood”, digging in where collective darkness congeals in great oozing sores of glittering absurdity.

MATHILDA & JOE

Working together, these art practices dovetail into a glisteningly material exploration of personal relationship to systemic perspective. The following debut exhibition proposal evolved out of a joint installation at School 33 in Baltimore MD where Joe and Mathilda had the opportunity to explore the possibilities of projection-mapping onto sculptural glass. The resulting “portals” have a heft and weight in their reaching gestures which belies the obvious facts of projection on substrate. It’s this uncanny material magic - the physicality of light - that will bring the TDSO into full Multiplex splendor.

the TDSO Multiplexor

This is a site-adaptive installation. In the center, a large sculptural hearth encrusted in porcelain foliage vibrates, absolutely dripping in beaded neon. It holds a glowing humanoid projection. As the figure moves, the neon and wall projections ripple and pulse in response. This is the active core of Trans-Dimensional muxing.

A sign at the mouth of the installation reads “The TDSO is Voice Activated”. As participants enter the space movement sensors will trigger a “welcome” response, inviting people to speak into microphones at the base of the hearth. At first participants might assume that they are interacting with a bedazzled chat-bot or video-enabled ChatGPT - but this is an inversion of the Eliza effect. The artist is actually responding in real time, using an AI trained voice-clone to speak aloud as the human Mathilda responds remotely via text.

The Trans-Dimensional Switchboard-Operator is both a mythical entity and a place to feel the humming pulse of the universe. Users are encouraged to flip the breakers but all routes offered are circuitous. Think of calling “Time” in the 90’s if the operator became sentient after training on The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and Vibrant Matter.

The body, the boiler-room, the switchboard, the server hub, the cloud. Contemporary culture is aware of humans networked nature, but holds the “self” distant from the mechanisms that keep “us” alive and connected. “Hey Siri, how many people use google?” Produces an immediate answer, but no felt sense of connection with your 1 billion fellow human nodes or the digital, electric body you belong to.

For how EXACTLY ions and electrons relate the potassium in your bloodstream to the metal that stores and transports digital files - please refer to Wikipedia. But for that elusive, visceral component - you’ll want the TDSO.

Please note - while the TDSO entity also exists in kiosk-form, the TDSO Multiplexor is different. The content of the entity’s questions/answers will echo the way the installation plays with immersion and sensory inundation to emphasize how enmeshed our physical bodies are with systems we don't often consider physical.

Above is a close up from School 33 - while the clip below shows the full constellation as well as a textural wall installation that plays with refraction through glass and pantyhose.