JANE MCGRATH
Today I’m back at The Lighthouse and it was really interesting to see the Pixy up and running. It is quite startling to see how much the human mind can read and interpret from a limited number of pixels. This makes me think a great deal about inference and suggestion. I am planning to design, build and programme a series of ‘bio digital ‘chairs, and the power of suggestion , contamination and transference is key. I am now encouraged to explore the notion that less can certainly be more or at least ‘as much as’…
Some faces worked better, some glided across the screen with ‘intense’ detail and others seemed to sit back and get lost. A mans back could be read in 3- 6 pixels!
The notion of spaces inbetween and inbetween spaces is cropping up – in the physical sense of this work, ie the spaces between the pixels the spaces between the batons, the spaces between the viewer and the screen. The experience of walking into the pixy screen is also interesting. For me the experience of being inside the screen was ‘live’ when I was face onto the pixels (with my back to the audience. ) When I turn forward I see only the back of the batons and I am disappointed – I am left wanting to see the pixels all around – Now I have this strange urge to run in a forest of pixels, knocking into them and seeing faces and figures every where I turn. May be a I have a weird deep seated urge to be inside a machine??
We had an interesting chat about the space between the action on screen and the reaction of the user and how the software reacts to the users face. About the moments when we are left waiting. I love the idea of working with that (un)comfortable waiting, those odd frozen moments. Tina explained the timings of the video reactions and how these are programmed and what work is ongoing at MIT re further development. Its fascinating.
I want to use my practical work to dig deeper into those ‘moments’ – those spaces of ‘pure potentiality’ – moments when there is a temporal suspension. When magic happens –or maybe doesn’t. When we must wait and see.
After a very interesting lecture by Jonathan Gilhooly at Brighton Uni we were talking about film (the old fashioned stuff) and the spaces between the frames, we wondered when watching a film actually how many blank spaces of a film strip we actually see (even if the brain did not register them – they still exist .) I’m sure it’s a very high percentage of blank spaces that we filter out … I would like to explore those spaces – who knows what films they could hide.. also what happens in the digital realm, the spaces between the pixels, the Pixy is a great place to explore and I’m really excited to see it up and running.
