Sensory Design: Performance Through Materiality
Irisema Ramirez
What makes a ritual sacred is unique to every person. Unlike routine tasks, rituals are carried out with mindful and intentional consciousness. Capturing these acts through performance and photography became the primary focus of my work, as I used my body as a medium to engage with themes of identity and pay tribute to female performance artists before me, such as Ana Mendieta and Marina Abramović.
Inspired by the French Papier d’Arménie, an incense paper used to scent spaces, I focused on natural elements commonly used in rituals of transformation. The book was composed of paper scented with natural resins such as frankincense and copal. This paper was incorporated into a performance engraved with themes of grief, drawing from traditions commonly practiced on Día de los Muertos, such as the burning of resin. The performance began with the manipulation and folding of the book’s pages, culminating in the release of fragrance through flame. What remained were ashes.
Following a path of sensory design, this project explored the visualization of our invisible physical responses to rituals. The performance featured a dancer whose heartbeat was recorded and manipulated in real time to generate a visualization projected onto a large-scale sculptural kirigami piece. By creating a coded system with audio-reactive features, manual manipulation, and real-time biodata, a singular, ephemeral performance was recorded.