For my current EDP course, I’m focusing on an idea that I’ve been planning to work on for awhile (current working title: Signals and Stillness). Inspired by being in public spaces where I’m subjected to (usually multiple) television displays that I have no control over, the large display featured in the work will assail the viewer with various clips of commercial media – news reports, advertisements, sports coverage, daytime talk shows, etc. Unlike a normal TV, this one senses when someone is standing/sitting in front of it, and begins to respond to (and reward) the viewer’s lack of motion. The longer a viewer remains in stillness, the more the display changes, altering audio of the clips into a serene music-like soundtrack, and morphing the video scenes into abstract washes of colors and shapes. The goal is to encourage a meditative state of presence in the viewer – the “noise” of the rapidly changing content that normally demands their attention is transformed into an object of contemplation, reflection and curiosity.
A preliminary layout sketch of the work:
The basic programming workflow for the piece is illustrated in the diagram below:
