artist in residence January - may 2006
ww.soniacillari.net/Se_Mi_Sei_Vicino_(If...)_index.htmProduced by Netherlands Media Art Institute
Interface developed by STEIM (Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music)
With the support of Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten Amsterdam 2006
Se Mi Sei Vicino (If you are close to me) is a participants responsive environment exploring the topic 'Body as Interface'. The concern is with the participants realizing that the boundaries of self extend beyond their skin and with visualizing the space between and created by them. The idea of what skin consciousness is, how presence, proximity and touch can re-direct the way we understand ourselves and regulate our relations with the others is specifically what I'm interested in to reveal. The visual and audio generated are a way to draw one in, but the moment of sharing and contact, where the interaction occurs through our senses, is what the interface is about.
The project focuses on the inter-relations of Body to Body and Body to Space, which are one's of interaction and movement, not simple presence. Trying to expand one's emotional dynamic range and to recognize exploratory-type behaviors, it explores the conscious and unconscious relation between the participants and their relation with the environment. This relies on mapping electromagnetic activities, actions, movement, attraction and repulsion between the participants and a performer/antenna standing on the interface.
The space is designed to provide the participants with an intuitive interface, which facilitates full body interaction. Moving around and touching the performer/antenna, visitors create themselves the real-time 3D graphics and audio surrounding that they are experiencing. As they touch and move closer or far away, their electromagnetic activity generates flowing algorithmic organisms and audio compositions.
These are their digital extensions constantly interfered from the presence and the movement of other bodies on the interface.
