Epistemic Ghosts

Where does knowledge come from? How do we know what we know? And how do we know what we don’t know?

Through a modern reinterpretation of a nineteenth-century illusion technique called a Pepper’s Ghost, I attempt to create an experience that represents the process of coming to know. Importantly, in coming to know something, we must encounter a liminal space between knowing and not-knowing—a space inhabited by epistemic ghosts. What happens when we catch a glimpse of these ghosts? How do we behave, and what do we learn when we reach this frontier?

catesc.com