Gutsie

Mika Satomi



"Gutsie" is an animation viewer and its shape constitutes a sculpture.
It is a cyber android that is filled with "Gut". Looking into its inside through its eye like hole, you can observe its intestines in motion. It will show you the places you want to see by tracking your eye gaze, but at the same time, your gaze may infect it. "Gutsie" will expose its intestines without hesitation as the way"Medical Venus"of "La Specola" does.Inside of our body is something very private, often disgusted, and so prohibited to see or to show. In media, visual images of inside of our body are often used to induce feelings of violence or disgust. Ironically, it is something that is stuffed in everyone's body without exception.

The sensation we feel when we explore the inside of "Gutsie" leads to the question "Gutsie" is asking. Is this sensation a natural instinct? Or something socially imprinted in us?

"Gutsie" is a metaphor of modern society human. We dress up our outside with the things that dose not belong to us, such us feather, and desire our body or skin to be perfect, no hair, no freckles, no wrinkles, no fat… as if we want our skin to be made of plastic. On the other hand, our inside is filled with gut. Even though our outside and inside is continuously connected skin, we have a conflict in our perception of this two sides. When you look inside of the "Gutsie" you will see the endoscope like stereoscopic movie. This represents the gut of the "Gutsie". Eye-tracking technology is used in this work. While you are looking inside, your eye gaze is tracked, and is inexplicitly influencing the movie. When you look at the end of the vision, the vision frame will be slowly navigated to the direction you desire to see. And when you look into the center too much, your eye gaze will start infect the skin.

"Gutsie" was exhibited at Interface Culture exhibition at 2005 ARS Electronica. exhibition movie >>