Trace An interactive installation that allows the viewers to be part of a collaboration with previous visitors and the architecture of the exhibition space. A continuous record of people’s motion through space that engenders dynamic drawings and sounds. digital projector cameras processing hardware and software for sound and video obstacles (clusters of modified file cabinets, some with speakers inside) With cameras mounted on the ceiling, the paths made by visitors through the space are captured, processed and projected as an evolving drawing. The lines accumulate to a programed density and then start to fade (Fig. 1). The timing is such that a person wouldn’t see her own path line decay, exaggerating the sense of the indelibility of one’s actions. It allows for a different perception of the consequence of one’s choices. The projection shows lines on paper as they follow the motion of the people in the space: stopping in front of the monitors, listening to and circling the obstacles, clowning for the cameras, etc. The presence of obstacles in the space redirects the traffic flow and introduces an opposing element of control. Free will is slightly thwarted. The sculptures also provide a distraction to the inevitable lure of one’s image on a screen (even when greatly modulated, it still exerts a strong pull). By having to walk around these clusters of objects, the visitor inadvertently behaves in a constrained, almost predetermined manner. Inside some of the file cabinets, speakers play the processed sound generated by readind the lines against a frequency and/or effects graph (Fig. 2). The sounds themselves are sampled (from what exactly to be determined, but something organic such as whistling or humming) and would be programed not to provide an immediate sense of feedback, but instead to become part of a larger composition. The motion would affect the position of playback and level of effect. The volume of the sound would be somewhat faint, so that in order to hear it, one must put one’s ear to the file cabinet. The tactile quality of the lines (one can see the grain of the paper and the way the ink flows on it) renders the translation process more intimate and organic. By using materials that are part of my personal practice I insert myself into the system, but it’s the will of each visitor that defines the trajectory of my pen. The resulting record embodies one’s choices as instant feed- back and as part of a cumulative history. Trace has the immediacy of a reflection and the lasting quality of memories. • thessia@yahoo.com • www.thessiamachado.com • www.vimeo.com/linksounds
Trace An interactive installation that allows the viewers to be part of a collaboration with previous visitors and the architecture of the exhibition space. A continuous record of people’s motion through space that engenders dynamic drawings and sounds. digital projector cameras processing hardware and software for sound and video obstacles (clusters of modified file cabinets, some with speakers inside) With cameras mounted on the ceiling, the paths made by visitors through the space are captured, processed and projected as an evolving drawing. The lines accumulate to a programed density and then start to fade (Fig. 1). The timing is such that a person wouldn’t see her own path line decay, exaggerating the sense of the indelibility of one’s actions. It allows for a different perception of the consequence of one’s choices. The projection shows lines on paper as they follow the motion of the people in the space: stopping in front of the monitors, listening to and circling the obstacles, clowning for the cameras, etc. The presence of obstacles in the space redirects the traffic flow and introduces an opposing element of control. Free will is slightly thwarted. The sculptures also provide a distraction to the inevitable lure of one’s image on a screen (even when greatly modulated, it still exerts a strong pull). By having to walk around these clusters of objects, the visitor inadvertently behaves in a constrained, almost predetermined manner. Inside some of the file cabinets, speakers play the processed sound generated by readind the lines against a frequency and/or effects graph (Fig. 2). The sounds themselves are sampled (from what exactly to be determined, but something organic such as whistling or humming) and would be programed not to provide an immediate sense of feedback, but instead to become part of a larger composition. The motion would affect the position of playback and level of effect. The volume of the sound would be somewhat faint, so that in order to hear it, one must put one’s ear to the file cabinet. The tactile quality of the lines (one can see the grain of the paper and the way the ink flows on it) renders the translation process more intimate and organic. By using materials that are part of my personal practice I insert myself into the system, but it’s the will of each visitor that defines the trajectory of my pen. The resulting record embodies one’s choices as instant feed- back and as part of a cumulative history. Trace has the immediacy of a reflection and the lasting quality of memories. • thessia@yahoo.com • www.thessiamachado.com • www.vimeo.com/linksounds