INTER/her
Camille Baker

Artist Camille Baker’s new work INTER/her takes her personal experience and those of other women who have had post-reproductive diseases and pain to create a Virtual Reality, sound, and haptic*, fully immersive artwork. The work explores the psychological issues of womanhood, and the sense of self.

INTER/her is based on Baker’s experience and journey through the healthcare system while she was treated for a post-reproductive disease in 2016. The ideas and development of the work emanates from experiencing women’s silence, conflicting information, and inconsistencies in support for women’s health.

Baker was also inspired by the stories she started to hear from friends and family about their reproductive disease experiences, which seemed to be hidden or kept to themselves until she began to speak up about it. Baker wanted the artwork to allow the seeing of the unseen and give insight and emotional awareness of a subject that is little known or talked about.

The themes in the work include issues of female identity, sexuality, body image, loss of body parts, pain, disease and cancer. The work also represents the lived experience of women’s pain and anger, conflicting thoughts through self-care and the growth of disease. Feelings of mortality are explored through a medical process in male-dominated medical institutions and a dearth of reliable information.

The artwork developed out of a layered soundscape of the stories Baker collected and ambient sound design and music with an all-women team. Interaction designer Maf’j Alverez, and concept artist Sarah Büttner helped her create the visual environment and electronics. Fashion designer Bushra Burge worked with Baker to develop the haptic corset worn by exhibition visitors, and sound artist Kat Austen designed the sound experience.

The work is presented inside a physical bespoke dome tent in the centre of the gallery space with a vulva-shaped opening and seats for participants inside. Each participant is dressed in a ‘haptic corset’ before entering the tent, which is embedded with vibration actuators in different locations on the lower abdomen with different intensities and patterns. Sensations will be felt on the body that are triggered by the stories that will play through the 360 spatialised audio inside the dome.

Camille Baker Said: “The INTER/her project comes directly from my own experience in fighting – and winning – against ovarian cancer throughout 2016 and 2017. This intense battle gave me the imperative to make something personal through my art practice; to give something back to other women, based upon my own experiences and journey through the healthcare system. I have used Virtual Reality that can be experienced within an immersive physical installation space, to take people on a journey deep into a woman’s body and to resonate with theirs, or the experiences of women they know. I have created an inviting space to envelop and comfort visitors, with the real and virtual installation designed to transport you fully through ambience, smell, sound and sight.”

Women will be able to share their personal experiences afterward and record them if they wish. Women’s health information and charity contacts will be available as they exit the exhibition.

https://inter-her.art/visit/when/

Editors Notes:

Listing’s information for INTER/her:
Date: Weds 23 June – Sun 4 July 2021
Opening times: 11:00 and 18:00 Wednesday to Sunday, Friday June 25th 11:00 – 20.30pm.
Venue: Brewery Tap UCA Project Space, 53 Tontine Street, Folkestone, CT20 1JR
Ticket Link
Promo Code for students
40 minute slots are available for up to 3 people from the same family or support bubble.
Visitors information: https://inter-her.art/visit/info/

INTER/her will also show online at EVA (Electronic Visualisation in the Arts).
Date: 5 - 9 July
Venue: Online
Website Link: http://www.eva-london.org/eva-london-2021/

*Haptic Technology, also known as kinaesthetic communication or 3D touch, refers to any technology that can create an experience of touch by applying forces, vibrations, or motions to the user.

PR: For interviews and further information please contact: Binita Walia on 07734 507799 binita@thespaceinbetween.co.uk

Further Information: https://inter-her.art

Images available here LINK

Image shown: Early interior artwork for inside the VR experience © 2021 Sarah Büttner for INTER/her

Credits:
Camille Baker - Artist/Artistic Director
Maf’j Alverez - Interaction Designer
Sarah Büttner - Tilt Brush and 3D environment artist
Bushra Burge - Haptic corset interaction/fashion designer
Kat Austen - Sound Designer
Stories - most women have asked to be anonymous
Audio excerpts also included from: “WOMAN: An Intimate Geography” by Natalie Angier; and “Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men” Caroline Criado Perez.

The project was funded by The University for the Creative Arts and Arts Council England.

About Camille Baker  
Camille Baker is an artist-performer/researcher/curator within various art forms: immersive experiences, participatory performance and interactive art, mobile media art, tech fashion/soft circuits/DIY electronics, responsive interfaces and environments, and emerging media curating. Maker of participatory performance and immersive artwork, Baker develops methods to explore expressive non-verbal modes of communication, extended embodiment and presence in real and mixed reality and interactive art contexts, using XR, haptics/ e-textiles, wearable devices and mobile media. She has an ongoing fascination with all things emotional, embodied, felt, sensed, the visceral, physical, and relational.

Her 2018 book New Directions in Mobile Media and Performance showcases exciting approaches and artists in this space, as well as her own work. She has been running a regular meetup group with smart/e-textile artists and designers since 2014, called e-stitches, where participants share their practice and facilitate workshops of new techniques and innovations. Baker  also has been Principal Investigator for UCA for the EU funded STARTS Ecosystem (starts.eu) Apr 2019-Nov 2021 and founder initiator for the EU WEAR Sustain project Jan 2017-April 2019 (wearsustain.eu).

About Maf'j Alvarez Interaction Designer
Maf’j Alvarez is an Digital media artist and creative technologist living in Brighton, UK, working with ecology, mind, cultural and gender diversity around open access to technology.

She also works as a user experience designer working with complex, large scale, digital transformation projects for government services. limbicfish.net