The Emotion Organ
Amanda Steggell

Curated by Michelle Teran

June 12 – July 10, 2010

 

Opening Reception
& Live Performance
Thursday, June 17th, 7 pm

"Time has passed us by," Maury said at once to me. "Our electronic organ is obsolete."
"You're wrong," I said. "The trend is actually _toward_ the electronic organ because that's the way America is going in its space exploration: electronic. In ten years we won't sell one spinet a day; the spinet will be a relic of the past."
"Louis," Maury said, "please look what our competitors have done. Electronics may be marching forward, but without us. Look at the Hammerstein Mood Organ. Look at the Waldteufel Euphoria. And tell me why anyone would be content like you merely to bang out music."

We Can Build You by Philip K. Dick

 

Why would anyone want to merely bang out music, when you could have euphoria? Why be satisfied with an ordinary spinet when you could have The Emotion Organ?  Developed over a rigorous three-year period in a small studio in Norway, Amanda Steggell's The Emotion Organ is a synaesthetic, simulacrum machine that takes its public on a phenomenological journey through the physical senses. With the organ, you can hear colors and smell sounds. The Emotion Organ is also a time machine. It connects obsolete technology with the new, combining a 19th century organ with contemporary gadgetry to create a hybrid form that is part performance object and part scientific instrument for studying phenomenon. When playing the organ, various combinations of chords and foot pedals trigger cross-sensory events, such as the projection of visual patterns, vibrations, and/or emission of compelling aromas. Each viewer is invited to play the organ and come up with his or her own set of discoveries. As a sculptural object used to explore processual practices, Steggell's The Emotion Organ is an exciting contribution to a contemporary artistic practice and redefinition of artistic roles from makers to facilitators that enable the exploration of complex relational, networked and social experiences.

The Emotion Organ will be installed within the Women's Art Resource Centre (WARC) and be offered to the public to explore and perform with. You are allowed and encouraged to touch the art! The exhibition will open with an introduction to the organ by the artist followed by a special evening of performances by both established and up-and-coming Toronto musicians who will create live improvisations using The Emotion Organ.

Michelle Teran, Curator