Invisible Museums of the Unseen

Explore unseen architecture dedicated to the invisible forces of nature enveloping the body and the mind. This ’choose your own adventure’ format monograph contains the full text transcriptions of the Chicago execution of Jeanette Andrews’ audio augmented reality work, ＂Invisible Museums of the Unseen.＂ The volume also serves as a companion work, delving into the research behind the piece and providing access for remote, static listening of the audio. Originally commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago in 2020, this outdoor, GPS-activated audio AR work invited participants to wander fictitious, sonic museums dedicated to how invisible forces of nature (such as gravity, air, reflections, and sound waves) act upon the body and psyche. Situated in four parks throughout Chicago, participants’ movements activated these app-based, auditory expressions of the unseen world. This work of invisible architecture creates the framework to investigate the mysterious forces acting upon us and asks if the world is a sensory illusion constructed of an infinite number of invisible building blocks. Each unseen structure is rooted in extensive research in contemporary physics as compared and contrasted with phenomenological philosophy. The work explores issues including what it means to place one’s body in a space, the act of being seen in public while being prompted to move in non-traditional ways, the definitions of indoors and outdoors, the phenomenology of sensing the unseen, and what constitutes a museum. Foreword by Lynne Warren.