Jiani WEI

Installation Art

Multiple Sizes

Supervisor: Dr. Ioannis BARDAKOS

Offline Phantom Limb constructs a threshold field between altar, cache space, and psychic residue. Drawing on the shamanic structure of “entering trance” and “returning to reality,” the Tipi functions as an entrance for identity displacement: once inside, the audience is no longer merely watching or using technology, but becomes something stored, waiting, forgotten, and always on the verge of being recalled. Originally associated with shelter and ritual, the form of the Tipi is transformed by electronic waste, wires, and mobile devices into a cache space inside the smartphone system. The actor’s bodily performance and system alerts accumulate throughout the space, while the drumbeat serves as a ritual signal of return, pulling drifting perception back into reality. The work points to a more hidden form of digital colonization: when leaving the screen no longer means being truly offline, do we still possess our own bodies?