ENESS (Steven Mieszelewicz, Alan Want & Nimrod Weis)
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| Crowd (2006) (rendered image) | Crowd (2006)
Installation with interactive 3D projection system
Have you ever noticed the often-graceful synchronicity of crowd movement at large events? There appears to be an innate collective-subconscious functioning that causes hundreds of eyes to move in unison to concentrate on the same focal point. Aware of the gaze of the people around you, your curiosity leads you to turn to look in the same direction.
Crowd is a suspended, disembodied community of eyeballs that gazes out inquisitively at the viewer, watching and tracking every movement. As the viewer moves backwards and forwards, the eyes follow this movement as it is mapped in three-dimensional space. When no one is present the eyes go to sleep, when someone approaches the eyes wake abruptly to scrutinise the intruder. With apparent self-consciousness, the eyes are 'aware' of each other. When one pair of eyes detect and direct their gaze towards someone, the other eyes also become 'curious' and 'look' in the same direction.
Using projection, real-time three-dimensional computer graphics and a video camera to track the movement of a person in real and virtual space, Crowd is able to simulate natural eye movement and the mechanisms of visual perception. Irises and pupils are projected onto the surface of suspended white spheres, producing the uncanny effect of 'seeing' biological entities.
Inverting the notion of the viewer scrutinising the artwork, Crowd scrutinises us, as ENESS explain, "We usually approach artwork and pass judgement, critique it. This work portrays the notion of your every move being watched and assessed."
Emma Mayall, ACMI
October 2006
ENESS are a multidisciplinary design team based in Melbourne, Australia. Founded by Nimrod Weis and Steven Mieszelewicz in 1997, ENESS specialise in interactive design, software development and interactive multimedia installations. The artists write that their objective is "...creating more intuitive, tangible and humane ways of interacting with technology." ENESS have exhibited worldwide, including Virsual, the digital rocking horse, at Experimenta: House of Tomorrow, Melbourne (2003) and Australia wide (until 2005), The 3rd Seoul International Media Art Biennale, Seoul Museum of Art (2004 - 2005), FuturePlay National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (2005), the Foundation for Art & Creative Technology (FACT), Liverpool, UK (2006) and the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), London (2006); and the interactive digital sculpture Pixile on Federation Square, Melbourne (2006), and WIRED NextFest, New York (2006).
http://www.electronicmiracles.com/
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