Boundary Functions

Boundary functions
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The American Artist Scott Snibbe, who studied Computer Science and Fine Art is known for his electronic media installations that directly engage the body of the viewer in a reactive system. He designed his works “to have specific social effects: to create a sense of interdependence, to promote friendly interaction among strangers, and to increase viewers’ concentration” . His works have been represented internationally including the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Artport (New York), Eyebeam, and The Kitchen in New York, the InterCommunications Center in Tokyo, Ars Electronica in Austria, The Institute of Contemporary Art in London and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. Scott Snibbe lives and works in San Francisco.
“Boundary Functions” (1998) is a work that creates a relationship between Theodore Kaczynski's PhD-thesis (written 1967) and Voronoi diagrams. These are realized as a set of lines projected from overhead onto the floor; each line divides two persons from each other. So the space of each person changes dynamically taking into consideration the distance of other persons around him. The space of each person looks like a kind of cell.
In the exhibition space there must be at least two persons so as to project the division-line. Thus, the artist defines personal space as existing only in relation with one or more persons. By projecting the Voronoi diagram, which is based on the relationships between individuals, the unseen becomes visible; the space becomes dynamic. Abstract mathematical rules become visible and more understandable. Depending on the number of visitors, patterns which look like natural shapes are being developed, such as those of grouped soap-bubbles. But in this work visualisation is made less complex, in a two-dimensional form. The projected lines which constitute different patterns following the given rules are a kind of reflection of each visitor’s space in relation to others. (Penesta Dika)