In Path of Silence‚ real-time video images from 11 different labyrinths throughout the world are brought together in a virtual 11-circuit labyrinth to create a collective sacred space‚ that can be experienced by multiple participants as a single labyrinth. A video camera records the activity within this collective labyrinth and sends it back out to each individual labyrinth location‚ thus completing the cycle. Like the journey of those who walk sacred labyrinths‚ traveling form the outside to the center and back again‚ each of the physical external sacred labyrinths travels into the center of the collective inner virtual labyrinth space and returns outward‚ completing the journey.
Over the past 5000 years‚ many cultures throughout the world‚ including the Native American‚ Greek‚ Celtic and Mayan‚ have devised their own labyrinth patterns. These patterns represent both the journey to our center and that of emergence and creation. Labyrinths are geometric forms used to define a sacred space. Walking a sacred labyrinth induces a contemplative‚ intuitive‚ and/or meditative state. Labyrinths are unicursal paths‚ which lead to the center and back out again in a spiral manner.
In Path of Silence‚ Path of Image‚ real-time video images from 11 different labyrinths throughout the world are brought together in a virtual 11-circuit labyrinth to create a collective sacred space‚ that can be experienced by multiple participants as a single labyrinth. A video camera records the activity within this collective labyrinth and sends it back out to each individual labyrinth location‚ thus completing the cycle. These images are displayed on video monitors or projection screens at each of the source labyrinth locations. Like the journey of those who walk sacred labyrinths‚ traveling form the outside to the center and back again‚ each of the physical external sacred labyrinths travels into the center of the collective inner virtual labyrinth space and returns outward‚ completing the journey.
During the installation‚ as participants walk the virtual collective labyrinth‚ their presence is recorded on the video images and transmitted to the source locations. Conversely‚ the presence of anyone walking the labyrinth in any source location is brought in to the collective virtual space via the video connection. Thus‚ walking either the virtual or any one of the physical labyrinths‚ makes one a participant in the collective. The reciprocal telematic nature of this installation reflects the essence of the labyrinth as an archetypal union of contemplation and visualization‚ both a journey to the center and of emergence.