Sophie Mei was a Curator & Contributing Artist of The Multimedia Anthropology Lab from 2019-2020.
MAL is a research group aimed at developing innovative methods for anthropological practice, experimenting with mediums such as sound, film, AR, VR/360 video, sculpture, and installation to explore how they can contribute to alternative forms of anthropological thinking. MAL seeks to develop new forms of practice which can dialogue with more diverse audiences, collaborate across disciplines, and disrupt existing models of thought.
Selected Projects
/// HYPHEN- LABS X TATE EXCHANGE ///
MAL were invited by Hyphen-Labs collective to be part of their 'Higher Resolution' takeover of Tate Exchange, Tate Modern in September 2019, which explored the theme of power in relation to digital platforms and technology and considered how art can be used as a tool of intervention.
We presented Technologies of Capture + Perspective Exchange ft. 2 VR pieces + collaborative AR sound piece [Maya Hope, Hermione Spriggs, Raffaella Fryer-Moreira, Deborah Tchoudjinoff, Sophie Mei + Charlie Bowles]
/// SPECULATIVE IMMERSION ///
An exhibition at The Festival of Culture presenting contemporary research on ecological crisis and human futures. Bringing together interdisciplinary works conducted by anthropologists, artists, and sound designers, this event drew on immersive spatial audio, projection mapping, and VR to take us through the shifting ecologies of our times, while inviting us to speculate on alternative futures.
Sophie Mei and Cemil Hamzaoğlu exhibited a collaborative sound piece using surface transducers, natural materials and contact + condenser mics to create a layered interactive live audio work.
/// MULTIMEDIA ANTHROPOLOGY NOW ///
Multimedia Anthropology Now draws together anthropologists and artists from around the world in an exhibition of experimental multimedia research. Featuring sixteen different works, creatively exploring the role that non-textual methods—such as film, sound, 360 video, projection mapping, drawing and graphic ethnography—can play in contemporary academic practice. Multimedia Anthropology Now tests the limits of everyday media by bringing together cross-disciplinary works that break down institutional elitism to present themselves to anyone, anywhere in the form of a publicly available webpage.
/// THE PORTAL WILL OPEN ///
MAL occupied the SRC in February 2020 to discuss and share our research on portals, resistance, boundaries, embodiment and worlding. Thinking through the portal as a vehicle to explore these themes, the residency was closed with an exhibition held in solidarity with the educators' strike action.
The exhibition included holographic greetings [Hermione Spriggs], collaborative projections [Paula Turmina, Deborah Tchoudjinoff + Sophie Mei] and a VR portal to Indigenous Brazil [Raffaella Fryer- Moreira].