The Mirror of Eye



Two images, half dissolved into each other.

There is a picture frame hanging in the corner of a room. The frame is paned with rear projection material behind plexiglass.. A small, still image of an outdoor architectural detail will be projected on the pane. The ambient noise of the room is distorted and replayed. As the audience approaches the window (presumably to better examine the small still image), the still image crossfades with video of a person, speaking of their initial reactions to panhandlers. If the user stays close to the mirror for too long, the video grinds to a halt. If the audience member backs up, the image again cross-fades to a different still image. If he or she goes forward, they will see a different video image. When the user is close to the window, the live sound fades and is overtaken by the sound of the video.

The piece is controlled by a devantech ultrasonic ranger and a bx24 microcontroller. The microcontroller communicates serially to a standalone application written in MAX/MSP/NATO. I have included the serial patch here, the NATO patch here, and the MAX/MSP patch here.

Currently, there are eight 45 second pieces of video and 8 still images. They are taken from 4 interviews and preedited and processed. The still images are of outdoor details that I associate with the interviews. They do not include any people.

With this project, I am trying to make the audience aware of the power that we unconsciously exercise when we ignore what we see: in this case, panhandlers. I am doing this by facing the audience with the overt reactions and discomfort of other passersby. The audience must stand uncomfortably close to the video in order to see the whole thing, The faces of the speakers are directly in front of them, speaking of an issue that we rarely discuss.


A user, standing close enough to watch the video.

Sasha Harris-Cronin
sasha@mortalspaces.com

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