Being Perceived

Year of Creation:

2025

Media:

Polycarbonate Panels, One-Way Mirror Film, LED Lighting System, 4040 T-slot Extrusion, Found Objects, Speaker, Custom Software, Custom Controller

Dimensions:

8’ × 8’ × 8’ cubic installation + responsive courtyard environment

Interaction Type:

Participant-Controlled Visibility

Duration:

Ongoing / Participant-Activated

Description:

An immersive cube made of mirrored polycarbonate invites participants to choose: do you want to be perceived? If yes, interior lights activate, creating an infinity room effect while making the participants visible to those outside. If no, exterior lights turn on, rendering the cube opaque from within while leaving those inside hidden observers. The structure functions as both architecture and interface—its mirrored walls dramatizing the thresholds between exposure and concealment. Being Perceived examines the paradox of human connection: we protect ourselves from being seen even as we long to see others. The only space of mutual freedom occurs outside the system, in the unmediated moment before entering or after leaving the cube, where vulnerability and reciprocity are shared.

Core Question:

What does it mean to control your own visibility within a system designed to watch?

Loop Analysis

Structure: 

Visibility Feedback Loop

Definition: 

A system where light and mirror polarity dictate whether one is perceiving, being perceived, or hidden.

Leverage Point: 

The participant’s agency in choosing visibility, though within a structure that enforces binary states of exposure.

Inputs / Outputs: 

Participant choice → lighting polarity (inside vs. outside) → one-way mirror visibility shift → perception of self and others

Effect: 

Alternating vulnerability and control; confrontation with the asymmetry of perception in social systems

Ethical Valence: 

Critical yet participatory—offers a safe stage for reflecting on consent, exposure, and intimacy under surveillance

Design Note: 

The cube foregrounds choice but also reveals its limits: freedom exists only at the threshold, outside the system’s architecture.