Ritual of Self (2023) is an interactive essay built in Unity exploring the relationship between an ordering hegemonic gaze in the Indo-Trinidadian Hindu ritual of puja as well as underground queer nightlife spaces. Through a simple walking mechanic, dark techno, and a camera tracing effect, I guide the reader through the ways that both of these spaces contain moments where interpellation is both performed and reified — asking us to consider for whose gaze this performance is for.
The work was installed in the Spring 2023 VCUArts Candidacy Exhibition titled What If We Hugged at the JCPenney? For the installation, the reader has to sit on a pillow in order to navigate the essay, this mimics the position one would be in if they were performing a puja. The white wooden altar the puja is enacted within is called a I fabricated and engraved my own custom bedi in collaboration with Taehee Whang.
