Come see Mammary Mountain, a new VR artwork at Piazza Shopping Centre in Paisley, from Wednesday 24th April to Saturday 27th April 2024  exploring the Breast Cancer Treatment journey.

Refractive are hosting this intimate visceral VR experience, ‘Mammary Mountain’ for 4 days. Slots for this are limited. Please book a slot below – tickets are free to book but donations are encouraged! The VR experience lasts 40 minutes.

Book your free slot on our Eventbrite page here: 

Wednesday 24th April slots

Thursday 25th April slots

Friday 26th April slots

Saturday 27th April slots

Refractive are also hosting an artist talk with the artists behind Mammary Mountain on Wednesday 24th April between 4-6pm at the Piazza Shopping Centre. This event is free and no booking is required. See more details about this event here.

Mammary Mountain is an intimate immersive virtual reality(VR) experience that explores dis-ease within the body during breast cancer and the body’s relationship to the broader context of the land. This new immersive experience tells the stories of patients’ and survivors’ healthcare struggles, and the hidden experiences of breast cancer treatment.

It tells the lesser told stories not only of survival, but of trauma from the life changing experience of (Breast) Cancer through a haptic garment, so audience members/ visitors can feel vibration in the area of the lymph nodes where breast cancer grows. This work is not only for breast cancer patients and survivors but more so for family, friends and those with no experience of cancer in their own lives to have more empathy and care for those who do around them.

The piece is explored through the illustrations, poetry, personal story, and field recordings of Tara Baoth Mooney, along with the personal stories of 8 participants who have gone through various treatments for cancer  themselves.

These recorded sounds and drawings have been merged with the strong visual 3D landscape and evocative animation created by Maf’j Alvarez through VR and embodied through a garment, which vibrates in areas of the body affected by pain or discomfort.

The narrative framework and content development, project ideation and story editing, grant writing, community outreach and development, workshop development, staging, and promotion, as well as overall project production, has been done by Camille Baker.

The artists hope this work ignites new public engagement, ultimately resulting in a more nuanced and holistic understanding and empathy of the breast cancer treatment experience. 

Experience

Audiences are invited to bear witness to the journey of the breast cancer experience, as narrated by survivors and patients. Within the world of Mammary Mountain, participants navigate a space that straddles perceptions of dream-like and reality. Multiple treatments,  and their affects and effects on the mind and body are told through various voices and their unique perspectives and path.

The experience is performative, Mammary Mountain is a unique experience set in a doctor’s surgery or clinic. As ‘patients’, the visitors wear a Mammography Gown and then a special vibration garment on top and VR headset, sitting in a bespoke chair to experience this intimate experience. The narrative is then embodied through a haptic garment, which vibrates in areas of the body affected by pain or discomfort mapped to the breast lymph nodes of the chest, underarm and back.

Mammary Mountain is crafted from multiple elements. The landscape of County Sligo in Ireland’s North West, where Mooney spent her time in recovery, the sounds of the machines juxtaposed with the everyday sounds of her footsteps, including the steps from the bed in her room to the radiotherapy department, recording the machines inside the environs, the sea, birds and water outside through her illustrations, the stylised 3D aesthetic created for them by Maf’j Alvarez for VR, the voices of other survivors collected and incorporated into the narrative design of Camille Baker.

This is embodied through a haptic garment co-designed by Sophie Skach and Mooney which  responds through vibrations that are triggered by the story elements. The electronic engineering is designed by Paul Hayes. The chair has been designed by Leo Scarff and is created from recycled wool. 

Details on the Mammary Mountain website at https://mammary-vr.art/ 

Credits 

Tara Baoth Mooney – Illustrations, poetry, singing, soundscapes and music composition, workshop development and community outreach, grant writing, personal story contribution, garment design direction, chair project management.

Camille Baker – Concept and ideation, research grant writing, community outreach, workshop development, narrative framework, content development and story editing, staging and promotion, as well as overall project production.

Maf’j Alvarez – 3D Artwork, virtual reality artistry, visual design, interaction design and chair design 

Other team members:

Paul Hayes – Haptic design, bespoke peripheral development and electronics

Sophie Skach – Garment design, wearable prototyping, pattern design, embroidery and overall wearable construction

Leo Scarff – Chair design and construction

Lee Paul Heron & Centre Neptune – web design

Marc Coleman and Dann Emmons – Photo and video documentation and trailer editing