Artists Anne Cleary & Denis Connolly developed a series of 5 helmets which they titled Meta-Perceptual Helmets, each of these helmets allows the participant to view the world through the eyes of different animals. The helmets created a mixed human/animal perception using lenses and mirror to shape the view of the user. The work is inspired by the vision experiments of George Malcolm Stratton in the early twentieth century who wore ‘upside-down goggles’ for periods of time to explore the plasticity of the brain. The work is part of the art of looking series which explores the viewers position in relation to the art object.
The artists state:
“Wearing the helmets, the visitor becomes a hybrid creature himself, part human, part machine, part animal, but also: part work of art. A work of art that challenges those who contemplate the helmet – from the inside or from the outside – to take a new perspective on the world.”