Mindscape is a modern-day recreation of a Chan Buddhist meditation practice that dates as far back as the Song dynasty (960–1279). This project guides audiences through the journey of multisensorial meditation, inviting them into the mental dimension of Buddhist ritual. Mindscape draws upon an array of objects integral to the Water-Land ritual, a Buddhist rite developed for the universal salvation of all sentient beings. These include bells, water, light, and other materials incorporated within temple practices; and Buddist pictorial art, rich in dramatic imagery and vibrant colors.
Mindscape combines elements from and depictions of ritual processes to construct the mind’s eye of a Chan Buddhist Master—the imaginative and spiritual perspective from which all aspects of meditation arise.
The participant is led into the mind’s eye of a Chan Buddhist Master during ceremonial ritual. The Master uses clairvoyance to observe heaven and earth, sorrow and happiness, as well as to spread compassion and enlightenment. The project’s incorporation of technologies such as projection mapping and digital mapping facilitate participants’ immersion in an interactive world. There, participants traverse across universal space, peer down upon unchanging cycles of time, and observe beyond the realm of mortals—across unions and severances, aloft charity and mercy, beyond salvation and enlightenment, even.
