UWM Arts+Technology Night

Beside Myself is an interactive video piece that is projected onto a large flat surface.  A video projector displays a live video feed from a camera facing the viewer, enabling the image to work like a sort of mirror. When a user walks into the view of the camera, they will see themselves in the projection.  After a few short seconds, they will then see a delayed version of the video together with the live version.  They will be seeing two images of themselves: the live and the delayed.  The motivation for adding a delayed image is to give the user(s)  a slightly different perspective of themselves.

Participants will also be able to interact with a digitally super-imposed object that reacts to the movements of the user(s).  When the image of the user touches the object in the projection, the shape or object will move and change direction depending on how and where the object was “touched.”  This kind of interaction may momentarily move the user’s focus away from their own reflection.  After a short time I hope that they begin to notice how they have been moving when they look back at the delayed image.

With this piece, I hope to engage with certain questions about viewership: What does it feel like to be both a spectacle and a member in the audience?  Do we change what we do or how we act once we know how we look doing it?  I hope this piece can give the participants an idea of their own self consciousness.