Transubstantiation of Knowledge

Transubstantiation of Knowledge| 2018
A Holographic Mixed Reality Experience in the V&A Medieval and Renaissance Galleries
Part of London Design Festival #LDF2018 @ V&A, London

Writing by Laura Hudson, AR / Holograms provided by doubleme.me (full credits in handout)

Rachel Ara was the V&A Research Institute's artist in residence. Informed by her research into the museum’s systems and data, Ara created a site specific mixed reality work investigating systems of knowledge and power by interweaving stories from Franciscan nuns, computer code and contemporary technologies.

Within the chapel the installation takes the form of an audio guide with a Hololens. Using the Hololens the viewer will be able to see and interact with holographic nuns in the chapel. Behind the church are cases with "false" objects mixed into the real V&A collections that substantiate the story and add more intrigue. In the whispering galleries is a soundscape formed out of the voices of the women at the V&A which interact with a giant wooden and fibre optic loom behind the Eucharist.

“Do you really believe, that everything historians tell us about men - or about women - is actually true? You ought to consider the fact that these histories have been written by men, who never tell the truth except by accident.”

Moderata Fonte, 1592

By 1552, around 1 in 8 Florentine women lived in convents, many to escape marriage and social oppression. This unprecedented concentration of highly educated women transformed convents into sites of great influence. However, with the onset of the Observant Movement, which aimed at reforming religious life across Europe, rules of enclosure for the nuns were re-enforced and many were silenced...

The Poor Clares of St Chiara specialised in the manufacture of metallic threads. In her installation Ara speculates that by weaving with these threads the nuns embodied their knowledge into woven “neural networks” held in trust for future generations. She suggests that the legacy of this technique can be seen in the computer memory boards of the 1960s and draws comparisons to the exploitation of the hard work and goodwill of the nuns to the conditions of the women working at the V&A.