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(Audience, February 2010)
“Audience” was a collaborative project between Random International and Chris O’Shea in 2008. This project initially started off in 2002 with the lead of Stuart Wood, Flo Ortkrass and Hannes Koch. They aimed to bring art, science, and technology together by installing a motion tracking software that senses movements of human figures when approached. Random International has previous works that portray the cold nature of technology. They are similarly interactive and technology based.
As stated above, this piece consists of small mirrors that have motion tracking softwares and cameras attached to them. When a human figure approaches the cluster, the software senses the target and turns their reflective sides to the moving subject. After all, the human figure becomes the reflected result, and thus the main part of the piece. It emphasizes the cold nature of technology, and the uneasy feeling one gets from this automated response. By reversing from being a viewer to someone who is viewed, the artists aim to find out if machines can evoke emotions in humans.
This piece is truly fascinating to me because the viewers do not have any access to manipulating the piece when it comes to interaction. This programmed system involuntarily moves the mirrors, and act as more of a surprise. Usually, the viewers are given the choice, but I liked how that isn’t the case for this piece.