In this interactive art
installation, first exhibited at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology in 1998, panes in a suspended window frame are substituted
for a semi-translucent material suitable for rear projection. A
video camera mounted above the suspended window is pointed toward
a real window behind it. The panes in the real window are covered
with mirrors.
The area between the
two windows is the interaction zone. When a person walks between
the two windows, the primary projected image breaks up into squares
that rebound back and forth with elastic properties. Breaking up
the primary image reveals a second one, consisting of the spectator's
own live video image.
The installation interlaces
multiple layers of real and virtual surfaces, effectively suspending
the normal function of the real window. As they wander through the
interaction zone, viewers find themselves hovering between the laminations
of this fictitious space. Their movement creates an organic disturbance
in the layers, focusing attention on the nature and function of
spatial boundaries in physical and virtual worlds.
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