hybris
Hybris (2026) is a 360° interactive speculative tool created in response
to mass institutional archives by projecting ideational relationships
between images of "Unnamed People" in
the archive using symptomatic reasoning. In its next stage, Hybris will also source images from its own Ethical Archive, created in community through protected user-submissions.
Interested in
to mass institutional archives by projecting ideational relationships
between images of "Unnamed People" in
the archive using symptomatic reasoning. In its next stage, Hybris will also source images from its own Ethical Archive, created in community through protected user-submissions.
Interested in
joining Hybris?
View Hybris here.
View Hybris here.
Should we touch the sky?
MMR
Sprawling across the sky dome of Hybris are paintings, photographs, and prints of various men and women throughout history. Figures weave in and out of a slick industrial frame and make unexpected contact with one another. These images are sourced from the National Gallery of Art. Like other similar institutions, NGA contains a database of thousands of works which are filterable by parameters such as date, medium, and subject. One of these subject filters is called ‘Unnamed People’.
Hybris works with these Unnamed People, mapping out speculative relationships between them, and restoring a sense of dignity and life through reevaluating questions of touch and proximity in relation to power. For this reason, one of the defining intentions of Hybris was to utilize distance as a protective mechanism. The viewer hovers in an immersive space, surrounded by a collage of historical-looking images of unfamiliar faces. Although the viewer can maneuver freely within the space, their relationship to these images remains distorted, dependent on their proximity to the figures. They are unable to readily grab, and thus impulsively consume, the Unnamed People of the mass archive unless they themselves willingly join Hybris’ alternative, the Ethical Archive.
Historically, large institutional archives are
inseparable from the devastation of colonialism. They were amassed through violence, exploitation, and theft, often creating monoliths of culture in the process. In response, Hybris is intentional in sourcing images of historically unprotected groups, such as women and people of color, that do not contain narratives of depicted violence or mockery to represent these figures with respect, permission, and agency. By extension, the Ethical Archive of Hybris requires a conscientious decision and activated presence from the user to maintain those protective protocols. Only when we decentralize linear narratives told through the eyes of Eurocentric hegemony may we have the audacity to touch.
Historically, large institutional archives are
inseparable from the devastation of colonialism. They were amassed through violence, exploitation, and theft, often creating monoliths of culture in the process. In response, Hybris is intentional in sourcing images of historically unprotected groups, such as women and people of color, that do not contain narratives of depicted violence or mockery to represent these figures with respect, permission, and agency. By extension, the Ethical Archive of Hybris requires a conscientious decision and activated presence from the user to maintain those protective protocols. Only when we decentralize linear narratives told through the eyes of Eurocentric hegemony may we have the audacity to touch.
Images sourced from the National Gallery of Art.
Femme Malgacheet Ses Enfants
(Madagascan Woman and Her Children) (Plate3)
1863
Désiré Charnay
Mother and Child in White
c.1790 American 18th Century
Portrait of a Couple
1924
James Van Der Zee
Portrait of a Man
c.1850
John Plumbe Jr.
Portrait of Two Men c.1860
American 19th Century
Portrait of a Woman
c.1850
Thomas S.Walsh
Portrait of Woman and Child
1855
Jean-BaptisteFrénet
Still Life,Flowers,and Fruit
1848
Severin Roesen
"The Letter"
1844-1845
David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson
Torso,San Francisco
1923,printed 1950s
Dorothea Lange
Trailing Arbutus
1863
Fidelia Bridges
Woman of the"Orient"
1837
Henri Lehmann