The Parts of the Isis Reflectorium
The Isis Reflectorium unfolds across five interconnected parts. Each draws inspiration from the architecture of the Iseum at Pompeii while offering a contemporary reinterpretation centred on participation, perception, and ritualised action. Together, they guide visitors through a layered experience— from monumental presence to intimate self-encounter—linking ancient sacred space with modern forms of engagement.
APPS
- Knowing Isis — Introductory guide to the Reflectorium, presenting its concept, themes, and interactive experiences around colour and perception. Open app
- Seeing Isis — An interactive Pixel–Palette–Morph demonstrating how AI and digital processes can generate a speculative recolouring scenario for an ancient Isis bust image. Open app
- Hearing Isis — Tap the Isis figure to receive reflective text prompts inspired by ancient traditions, with optional audio playback and language switching. Open app
- Fresco Color Quiz — A short interactive quiz exploring pigments and colour use in Pompeian fresco painting and ancient material practices. Open app
The Tower
Rising at the centre, the Tower is a vertical space-frame fitted with hoops, counters, and lenticular prints. It acts as both monument and participatory scoreboard, recalling the elevated podium of the Iseum temple as a visible threshold between human action and sacred imagination. A lenticular image of an Isis bust functions as the Tower’s visual anchor, oscillating between material surface and interpretive colour states—foregrounding perception rather than reconstruction.
The Oracle
The Oracle is realised through a set of apps that activate interpretive narrative layers around the installation. They link contextual guidance, perception cues, reflective prompts, and demonstrative visuals to the visitor’s encounter. Echoing the inner cella of the Iseum, the Oracle stages mediation and revelation not through a presented cult statue, but through contemporary interfaces that frame how meaning is produced, discussed, and experienced.
The Court
The Court is the performative arena of the Reflectorium. Here, visitors throw basketballs through hoops, generating collective feedback through counting and scoring. The repeated gesture becomes a structured form of participation—a contemporary ritual—paralleling the Iseum’s peristyle courtyard as a site of public gathering, processional movement, and shared action. The lenticular visuals contribute a shifting image condition that connects physical gesture to questions of colour, surface, and perception.
The Mirror
The Mirror invites introspection, positioning visitors as both subject and interpreter of myth and history. It echoes the sacred basin of the Iseum as a site of reflection and renewal—shifting attention from the authority of objects to the agency of perception and the visitor’s role in completing meaning.
The Cage
The Cage defines boundaries, evoking fragility, tension, and constraint. Its architectural counterpart in Pompeii is the enclosing wall of the Iseum sanctuary, which protected the sacred precinct and marked the threshold between the sacred and the everyday. In the Reflectorium, this boundary becomes experiential: it frames where participation begins, where it is limited, and how rules shape collective ritual.