Milky Way is the first in a series of explorations of the matrixial space. This multimedia installation addresses the moment of the human infant's anarchic and phenomenological becoming. The work explores infant and child behaviour within the mother/child dyad in conditions under which the matrixial space has not been compromised by the technocratic logic that threatens it. Through the act of suckling, tactile wanderings and bodily interplay, the work offers a glimpse into the child/infant's jouissance that is upheld by the technology of the maternal body. In this way, the work explores the matrixial space/maternal body as a space that provides both shelter and dwelling for the infant/child.
This multimedia installation, offers a space for the 'voiceless' child. Spivak's statement that the "subaltern cannot speak" and her work on this issue serve to show how the mechanisms by which that silence is created operate. They point out how delicate and potent systems of communication between humans are foreclosed and violated, and ultimately broken down by the interference and the noise that is represented by the cultural hegemony and technocratic colonisation of infant care. Through the voices of children the work offers a window to explore the role of breastfeeding from the child's point of view. The work combines two-screen video projection, soundtrack and data about breast-milk. The viewer is confronted directly with the child's encounter with intimacy during breastfeeding, while hearing children speak about breast-milk, its qualities, benefits and their own experience.
