Stephanie Smit

The Soul Constellation Map is an ongoing artistic-research project investigating questions of personal identity, memory, continuity of self, and symbolic recurrence across historical time. Combining visual mapping, biographical research, symbolic interpretation, mythology, phenomenological and intuitive inquiry, and AI-assisted exploration, the project examines how experiences of continuity, recognition, and meaning emerge through networks of symbolic, relational, and biographical correspondences. The archive currently consists of a growing network of interconnected identity constellations containing biographical material, visual references, symbolic correspondences, and relational mappings. Rather than presenting continuity of identity across lifetimes as an established fact, the project approaches it as an artistic and research question through which consciousness, memory, narrative formation, and selfhood can be explored. Through the construction of large-scale visual constellations, participants are invited to engage with questions concerning personal identity, myth-making, symbolic cognition, and the persistence of psychological structures across time. The project combines analytical, artistic, phenomenological, and intuitive modes of inquiry. Artificial intelligence tools are employed as research assistants in the exploration of historical correspondences, biographical relationships, and symbolic patterns, while the visual structure of the archive is developed through artistic mapping methodologies. Situated at the intersection of visual art, mythology, phenomenology, and consciousness studies, the project investigates how narratives of identity emerge from connections between biography, memory, archetype, and lived experience. The resulting maps function simultaneously as artworks, research tools, and speculative frameworks through which questions of selfhood and continuity can be explored. This presentation demonstrates the methodology through specific examples from the archive and considers its relevance to broader discussions within consciousness studies concerning personal identity, phenomenology, symbolic cognition, memory, and the nature of selfhood.

Stephanie Smit is a Dutch interdisciplinary artist, performer, composer, and artistic researcher whose work explores consciousness, personal identity, mythology, symbolic systems, and self-transformation through performance, music, visual art, installation, and emerging technologies. Her practice combines artistic research, phenomenological inquiry, and participatory methodologies to investigate questions of memory, meaning-making, and continuity of self. She has presented work at museums, festivals, conferences, and interdisciplinary research platforms, including Dutch Design Week, Design Museum Den Bosch, and Harvard-affiliated initiatives.