Mike Cohen

Mike Cohen is an artist and designer interested in creating works that play with people's perception of things. He uses light, sound, sculpture and the screen to construct environments and ideas that gives a viewer the sense that something is different than what should be. Having a long history of using computers back to the days of the Commodore 64, he has always been fascinated with technology. His current focus is in audio and visual performance and installation, ranging from creating new instruments to music visualization.
The Confines of Space
Design & Construction

The Confines of Space is a sculptural light piece that I consider a self-portrait of my past. For seven years, I worked as a programmer through 4 different offices, each well populated with small gray cubicles. In my seventh year of work, I found myself needing to get out of these spaces and I left the neutral gray workforce to begin my creative life at the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU. In The Confines of Space, I explore the contrast of my old life and my new life by creating endless space in a confining and comparably small object. With this juxtaposition, the viewer can be witness to endless space existing in a place where it physically should not.

In The Confines of Space, I am recreating the feeling of something huge being trapped by something small, but not from my first person viewpoint as a programmer in a cubicle, more so as an outsider looking in on something that should not exist in such a small space. With no doorknob and a locked deadbolt, there is no way to enter the space. The only entrance into this space is a viewport through the neutral gray door barely large enough for the eyes. What I created behind the door is a white endless void. Neither shallow nor deep, what the viewer sees is purely at their discretion.

What I wanted people get out of this piece was a sense of wonder firstly, but really, I wanted people to see what they choose to see. When people ask me what it is, I don't tell them what it is, I ask them to look inside and see for themselves. Having shown The Confines of Space to a group of people, each viewer has seen something completely different.

Here are some thoughts from various people:

  • "There's a disconnect, I get a bad feeling. It's affecting my sense of balance leaning my head against the door."
  • "I have a desire to get where I want, but I just can't get there"
  • "Awesome. I completely lose any sense of depth."
  • "Feels sterile. I really want to open this god damn door now."
  • "Walking into the Matrix loader program."
  • "I feel I'm dead, the light directs me to go in. The space makes me want to explore it."
  • "I feel like there's a strong presence...like it's pushing and I should respect it."
  • "The lower part of my body feels vulnerable because I can't see what's below on the other side."
This mix of thoughts and feelings about my piece are exactly what I want. I don't want to hear from every single person that it's just an endless space, because it's not really the endless space that matters as a "physical" thing. It's moreso what the space creates for people.

© Michael Cohen 2025