The Magnetic Influence was interactive artwork, performed by Roxanne Bartlet and Marie Lorenz for High Desert Test Sites 2013.



We built a series of accessories that helped participants interact  with rocks. Our goal was to understand their mass and scale on a physical level. Franz Mesmer believed that all bodies, animate and inanimate are subject to the gravitational pull of the heavens. Although many of his theories were discredited, the idea that the human body responds to gravity and the magnetic influence of objects persists. Our project was an attempt to gratify the theories of magnetic influence by attaching ourselves (and you yourselves!) to rocks. Please scroll down, or search the links to the right, to find the images that we took on the weekend of High Desert Test Sites. And THANK YOU for participating!

Marie and Roxanne