Mammary Mountain

Mammary Mountain is an intimate, immersive virtual reality (VR) and embodied haptic experience that explores dis-ease within the body and its relationship to the broader context of the land. These pressing themes and social realities are explored through the prism of one of the artists, Tara Baoth Mooney’s, experience of breast cancer, interwoven with other patients’ and survivors’ stories of their cancer treatment, trauma, and recovery. “Patients” are slowly dressed in a mammography gown, over which a specially designed haptic garment is wrapped. Each participant also wears a VR headset while sitting in a bespoke chair. The narrative is then embodied through the haptic garment, which vibrates in areas of the body often affected by pain or discomfort mapped to the breast lymph nodes of the chest, underarm, and back.