Shifterpit

Inhabit a full body avatar that morphs across species, gender & age. Exhibited at the Welcome Trust's States of Mind exhibition (2016), which explored how conscious perception can be controlled & subverted.

Total body mash ups

Shifterpit is a playful exploration of how self-perception can be manipulated through real-time metamorphosis of an avatar's body. Visitors saw a mirror reflecting an avatar similar to their own age, ethicity & gender. Other audience members were then invited to morph the avatar using slider bars. The resulting mashups ranged from a 2cm lion with a tail to a hundred foot alien with ‘Mr Fantastic’ super stretchy arms.

Humuncular flexibilty

Shiftpit was inspired by Jaron Lanier's ground breaking work on inhabiting novel avatar bodies. The extent that humans can feel ownership & agency wihin a foriegn body has long been a subject for philosophical debate. Emerging full body technology allows us to test these ideas of 'embodied cognition' out in the wild.