The Kodatrope is a large scale interactive art piece that overloads the viewer with information in order to separate them from their daily routine. It’s a response to what I consider one of the most compelling social issues of today: that people rarely think outside their bubble of familiarity. When going throughout our day, we don’t tend to deviate from thinking about issues relating to us. We overlook the people around us and are oblivious to the fact that we all could be experiencing essentially the same things. There are an infinite amount of stories that we’ve never heard, people we’ve never met, or even thought of. The earth has 7 billion people, all protagonists in their own minds.

The motive behind The Kodatrope is that I wanted to place people in an environment where they are cut off from their own thoughts and have to focus on observing photographs: records of other people’s memories. When lit from the outside, the interactive art piece allows the viewer to place their head and shoulders inside and look up at more than 500 different photographs - 500 stories they’ve never heard. The slides have been collected from different families and most are from the 1960s and 70s. I will consider the sculpture successful if after people have experienced the work, they become more aware of the people around them. Especially the ones they haven’t met yet