Installations
Interactivity lies at the heart of both spiritual experience and the modern digital interface. Using interactive video technology that is aware of and responds to the presence of a viewer, Somatechne creates a physical space in which the viewer becomes aware of their bodily dissolve into cyberspace. As they move, they trigger changes in the video which reconfigures the hierarchy and orientation of the stained glass-like diagrammatic imagery.
One of the main perils of "interactive art" is its tendency to create a "look what I can make it do" master-slave relationship between viewer and art. To confound this, if the viewer triggers too many changes in the video, it eventually amounts to a progressive dimming of the screen until the video turns off entirely, rejecting further interaction. Only after a period of stillness will the video resume and allow further interaction.