Empathy Gap
Materials
Silicone, Spray Paint, Wax, Aluminum Wire
Dimensions
10.5 × 9.5 × 6.5 inches
An empathy gap is a cognitive bias, a systematic pattern of deviation from rationality, that disables the victim from feeling empathy. It leads to a tendency to underestimate the influence of their emotional state and overestimate the influence of their intellectual state on their decisions and behaviours, often resulting in a lack of guilt following actions that harm others (and sometimes becoming the explanation for the behaviour of serial killers).
As I researched further, I realized that without first-hand experience, its influence on the victim’s actions is extremely difficult to understand. Any attempt on our part to fully understand the empathy gap, to live without empathy entirely, will remain inconclusive, represented by the journey up the ladder into the vast emptiness of the galaxy and black hole form. This not only represents the gap physically, but also its obscure nature.
FABRICATION PROCESS
STEP 1:
A rough form of the brain was sculpted out from large chunks of clay.
STEP II:
Coiled details were added on to more realistically depict the brain's texture.
STEP III:
A two-part plaster mould of the brain form was cast.
Chute for Step V
STEP IV:
The plaster moulds were lined with silicone to create the exterior skin of the brain form.
STEP V:
Separate quantities of blue, blue-violet, violet and black coloured wax were made by melting colour pigments with beeswax and paraffin (to give the wax mixture structural stability and strength once cooled). The wax was then poured into the silicone skin through the chute left in the plaster cast as the separate colours were swirled into one another to create a 'galaxy-like' interior for the brain form.
STEP VI:
The 'black hole' form was cut and carved, and the silicone skin was cleaned and refined.
STEP VII:
The ladder was built using aluminium wire.
STEP VIII:
The exterior of the brain form was spray-painted with a 'galaxy' print.
