The Project
Welcome to Mammary Mountain
Mammary Mountain is an intimate performative VR experience that explores “dis-ease” within the body through the experience of breast cancer. This new interactive experience tells the stories of patient healthcare struggles, particularly on the hidden experiences of breast cancer treatment. Not appropriate for under 13 years olds.
This artwork is presented through a combination of interactive VR art installation and creative methodologies, audiences will partake in the stories of survivors, the treatments, and the often unspoken effects of the journey. Audiences are led through a visual and sound experience which has interwoven excerpts from survivors stories.
The Experience
The experience of Mammary Mountain features a staged multimedia installation, set in a doctor’s office, where participants become “patients”. They are fitted with a hospital gown and haptic jacket, invited to sit in a special VR chair (pictured), and given a VR headset to wear, with which to experience the work.
This VR immersive experience, exposes the idea of “dis-ease” within the body and the bodies relationship to the broader context of the land. The artists hope this work ignites new public engagement, which will ultimately result in a more nuanced and holistic understanding of the experience.
Inspiration & Development
The piece is further explored through illustrations, poetry, personal story, and field recordings of Tara Baoth Mooney, which were created while going through treatment. Mooney recorded the steps from the bed in her room to the radiotherapy department, recording the machines inside and the birds and water outside.
These recorded sounds and drawings have been merged with the strong visual 3D landscape and evocative animation created by Maf’j Alvarez through VR and embodied through a garment, which vibrates in areas of the body affected by pain or discomfort.
The narrative framework and content development, project ideation and story editing, grant writing, community outreach and development, workshop development, staging, and promotion, as well as overall project production, has been done by Camille Baker.
The landscape of County Sligo, Ireland is the physical and imagined context for Mammary Mountain. Knocknarea is home to a rocky Cairn at its peak, which is reputedly the tomb of Queen Medb.
To the left of the mountain, the Cailleach (or wise woman) of the land is in repose. At the foot of the mountain, the sea ebbs and flows in a constant ritual, where the land becomes the body and the body becomes the sea. The boundaries of human and non-human fade. The body is the cosmic embodiment of nature.