The Collective House Cee-Jay Porthen

by Cee-Jay Porthen

The subconscious is very fickle, but interesting in its nature, even more so when it’s that of a shared subconscious. This is exactly what my artwork The Collective House attempts to represent, essentially being a simulation of a collective subconscious (which takes the form of a playable video game) based on the work and research of psychologist Karl Jung. In his research, Jung stated that the collective subconscious is a metaphysical structure that takes a form similar to that of a house where each room harbours secrets, not just about yourself as a person, but also about those who have come before. In the case of my artwork, however, this concept takes a bit of a twist in that the house itself represents the collective subconscious, but each room represents 7 different archetypes that have been described by Jung as existing within the collective subconscious.

These seven are as follows: The Youth, The Trickster, The Warrior, The Researcher, The Mother, The Shadow and The Observer (the final archetype that is represented by the installation space)

The Goal of this interactive artwork is for you, as the viewer, to explore this collective subconscious and determine for yourself which rooms represent which archetypes and ultimately discover more about these characters within the collective subconscious who take and are governed by these narrative roles.

Download The Collective House Game