Exploring Digital Intimacy
Our blogs are diaries and our Instagrams collect embarrassing selfies. We hope for an audience, we doubt we’ll get one. We hope a voyeur will initiate a direct relationship. They must reach out to us. By giving both parties the same ability to initiate interaction, what happens when they realize they are the voyeurs of the other?
Voy(er)age simultaneously exists in two galleries, one in Boston and one in Providence. In Boston a metallic wall contains a peephole through which one sees a hologram video of some one looking at them. In Providence, a back out room contains a 6'x4' video projection of an eye that comes and goes, revealing the room behind the eye. With two live feeds, webcams capture viewers and broadcast the content to their voyeurs in the other gallery. When the Boston and Providence visitors become aware of that they are seen my each other, some flee while others invent forms of communication.
In collaboration with Gal Koren (MIT) and Barron Webster (RISD).
From Body + Internet Workshop STEAM Series
Boston Gallery
Looking through the peephole, the viewer slowly comes to realization that they are being seen by those they look upon.
View of live feed hologram through the peephole. The hologram people are in the Providence gallery.
Providence Gallery
Viewer in the black box watching the video feed projection, awaiting movement. Viewer takes on a passive role thinking he is consuming prerecorded content.
Viewer in the black box attempting to communicate with the live feed projection eye. Viewer has realized the live feed component and has choosen to interact with the installation and is no longer passive.
