What makes us different from one another? What are we really comprised of?
Mirror / Snapshot is an interactive installation consisting of two parts:
Mirror
a quasi-organic, quasi-mechanic being living on a wall. When idle, it moves gently in space, waiting to be distracted. Mirror recognises people and mimics their movement, gradually borrowing colours from its surroundings.
Snapshots
a stream of graphics continuously generated throughout the Mirror's life. Snapshots are being created as soon as someone starts interacting with the Mirror. Each Snapshot is a record of one moment that Mirror shared with its audience. Meant as visual souvenirs, they are being saved on disk and can be downloaded or printed out.
Snapshots also include some textual data: these are the parameters that the algorithm generating the Mirror used to translate its input into output, along with their numeric values.
Mirror seems organic, its movement mysterious but somehow natural, mimicking a living being. However, revealing the parameters on Snapshots is meant to challenge that illusion, bringing back the mechanical, computational side of the Mirror to attention. On the other hand, parameters' names (Hunger, Integrity, Attachment, Deviation etc.) are often ambiguous if not outright confusing. Furthermore, the text is layed out in an almost unreadable way. Instead of explaining the picture, they further obfuscate the logic and add to the enigma.
Together, Mirror / Snapshot offer an invitation to reflect on the uniqueness and inherent mystery: of us and of every moment we live in.
Mirror / Snapshot was my joint bachelor thesis under Multimedia and Graphic Design at Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Poland.
Music: Hammock - Gold Star Mothers
