Me & U
Date made: 2005?
Materials: responsive, screen-based installation.
Other information: Exhibited in a group show at University Galleries. Illinois State University, Illinois, USA. October 28 to December 14, 2005
"me & u" is an interactive screen-based installation of an avatar's animated gaze that reacts to the viewer's proximity. The project entailed concept research in the realm of empathy and aesthetics involving encounters with virtual persons; it is the result of digital image capture & manipulation, physical interaction design, software design, motion sensors & microcontrollers.
A catalogue of portraits projected onto a screen is dialogically defined by the visitor's position in space. Occupying different zones within the gallery will influence how the character gazes back, encouraging or discouraging the visitor from getting closer.
The piece involves choreography in space using motion sensors, and software. New media, in addition to theories of proxemics and intersubjective non-verbal communication, are used to reference how observer and observed interact and are inextricably linked with each other in creating an emotional field.
Proxemics, a term coined by anthropologist Edward Hall in the 1960's, is the study of how spatial relationships and territorial boundaries directly influence our daily encounters. This spatial, non-verbal communication between bodies, handles distance in order to send messages during the course of our daily social interactions. Thus, individuals define their attitudes according to the spatial positions they adopt before others. Changing the distance between two people can convey a desire for intimacy, declare lack of interest or fear, and increase or decrease domination.
In addition, we also use our 'gaze' in order to maintain a measure of control over such space. This intersubjective spatial situation helps us see ourselves through the eyes of the other.
Pat Badani