You lookin' at me? (day 237)

Morgan Rauscher defended his thesis yesterday.  I was one of the faculty members on his committee.  He did very well and was an interesting person to talk to as always.  The best part of his thesis is the project which has two parts: Zeugen and Mind Machine.  Zeugen is a large suspended board with 32 half faces (eyes and nose) whose eyes follow the people currently looking at them.  The faces are backlit and turn on and off according to an algorithm that I'm not quite clear about.  There is a half-mirror in front of the faces which becomes more of a mirror when the faces are not lit.  There are servo motor sounds from the eyes tracking the viewers' faces.  The back of the board is open and shows the mechanics and electronics of the work, as well as the netbook that controls it.  Morgan calls this open source.  I've seen this work a few times in different instantiation but this was the first time I saw it with the half mirror.

After being with it for a while it started to make me think of social media.  The board is a kind of screen and the faces are looking at me and I'm looking at them and at the same I'm looking at myself.  And it's all quite ordered.  The whole thing is self-conscious in a mechanical and somewhat unnerving way. 

The piece will be on display during the Graduate Exhibition May 2-16th at the Charles H. Scott Gallery at Emily Carr University.  I recommend.

A song for this post.