Yawning Room

Michaela Davies

Opening 04.03.15 6-8pm
Artist Talks 26.03.15 6-7pm

Yawning Room is a participatory audio/video installation aiming to induce involuntary yawning responses in the viewer upon exposure to the work, thus contributing, in real time, to the environment created by the multiple yawners in the installation. The work comprises three channel video, projecting six subjects at a time, accompanied by a six channel audio track. The 23 subjects in Yawning Room were filmed as they watched videos of people yawning, and, in turn, provide yawning stimuli for the viewer. The accompanying six channel composition was created from dry and processed recordings of yawns.

Yawning Room is a continuation of Davies’ interest in using involuntary mechanisms of the body as a tool for composition, and participatory art as performative research. An experiment in the induction of involuntary audience participation, the viewer creates an additional layer to the installation.

While the causes of contagious yawning are still unknown, the relationship between yawn contagion and empathy is strongly supported. The hypothesised behavioural response in the viewer is an embodied realization of connectedness- a shared moment of art viewing lassitude.