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The Monastery
In the mists of the mind

by Kiwako Sakamoto & ANDAND

At the Zen Buddhist monastery in Alsace, from the time one wakes up, to the time they return to bed, non-verbal sounds like bells and drums serve as communal cues, including during the Zazen (sitting-meditation) sessions, as silence is valued in this practice.
The Zen master at the monastery once likened the state of mind of Zazen to smoke: if you are chasing after your thoughts, your vision is obscured by smoke and you cannot see clearly; the only way to have a clear view, for smoke to settle, is to "stop moving."
Sound Scene visitors are invited to experience the mental and emotional experience of Zazen through virtual reality, surrounded by the smoke and explorable space of mental chatters.

Before you enjoy the experience, please change/review your phone settings:

+ turn on auto-rotate
+ turn off display sleep
+ turn off screen notification

Kiwako Sakamoto is a technologist and sound enthusiast, and member of DCLL (when she lived in DC). She visited a Zen Buddhist monastery last year and started recording people's mental chatters and non-verbal sounds in the temple. In the past, she worked with media and technology artists as well as filmmakers, and this would be her first art piece.

ANDAND are Michael Burk && Ann-Katrin Krenz.
Interaction designers and media artists, based in Berlin. Their work ranges from interactive installations and spacial media environments to visual explorations with pixels, pen and paper. They are also part of schnellebuntebilder.







THE MONASTERY

In the mists of the mind

VR
HANDHELD