Two videodisks hold scenes of water, fire, earth and air from urban contexts (street puddles, barbecues, sidewalks, public beaches, etc.). The sounds are primarily the actual urban ambiances recorded along with the images. The images are selected, mixed, and projected down onto a 3m by 4m (10ft by 13ft) bed of sand surrounded by a narrow walkway. It is not clear that the 'screen' is sand because the image creates the illusion of depth, and the sand sinks underneath it. People look around and surreptitiously reach down through the depth of the image to feel the dry sand. The movements of visitors are tracked by four infra-red sensors and two cameras, which cause the program to select another image to be dissolved in along the side where movement is detected. If one walks all the way around, this second image melts into the first, following one's motion. Fire spreads across water, the sidewalk floods, shadows and reflections of people emerge out of the flames, or from the waves. If one steps into the image, the sounds of water are heard, and the footprints remain printed onto the sand 'screen'. It was not important to me that the interactors understood these interactions. The interaction was necessary to create a certain experience for the interactor; interactions that are not registered consciously can often more powerfully shade the experience than those that are explicit, understood and so no longer 'experienced'. The work asks us to imagine the space in the images in an unconventional way (relative to TV viewing).


Technical Background

HW: Apple Macintosh
SW: Max, Artist’s Proprietary

David Rokeby (CDN), born 1960, is a visual artist, composer, author, and developer of hardware and Software. His main emphasis is in the area of motion - sensitive sound and image spaces. Numerous exhibitions at, for instance, SIGGRAPH and the Hamburg Mediale. Several prizes, including a Distinction for “Very Nervous System” at the Prix Ars Electronica '91.