Sensilla was an interactive performance art piece at the EATEN: A Capsule Museum for Future Possible Past Beings exhibition as part of Art After Dark (2019) in Gillman Barracks, Singapore. The sixty-minute experience explores ideas of the spectacle and its consumption in an alternate and yet familiar way and setting. As participants enter the world of Sensilla, they take on different roles as they oscillate between connection and alienation from each other.

In the familiar setting of an art gallery, participants enter a dimly lit space where the artworks recede and their own actions become amplified. Guided by disembodied audio instructions heard through mobile phones pressed against their faces, visitors navigate an experience shaped by invisible technologies, shifting boundaries, and heightened bodily awareness. Inspired by the term sensillum — the sensory organs insects use to respond to external stimuli — Sensilla places participants in a liminal state of sensing, feeling, and responding to sound, light, and the human voice.

Visitors become part of a temporary “TechnoTribalist” community dressed in black and white with neon markers, moving collectively through awkward and intimate encounters. Through QR codes, audio tracks, and performative tasks such as leaning against walls or speaking with strangers, the work critiques technological mediation while simultaneously slowing down the rapid consumption of art. Rather than overwhelming audiences with information, Sensilla redirects attention toward the body, space, and shared social presence within the gallery.