Here is prototype- press any key or click mouse - move mouse around. Note:
this requires a java-enabled browser. If it doesn't work on your machine, view the video below
instead. I will continue to update the prototype and this document - as changes are made - the video less often.
Description
The piece starts with an image of me. It will begin to fade and will be manipulated automatically. Additionally, interaction with keyboard or mouse
will cause different manipulations of the image.
Differences with final version
I am still playing with the timing of the fading/auto manipulations.
More manipulations may be added. I will also likely fiddle with some of the chance parameters. A different photo may be used. In the final version, every time the images change
it will overwrite the image. The original, and each mutation of it are therefore gone forever.
Artistic Statement
Here are some thoughts I had while making and thinking about this piece.
The Buddha teaches all things are impermanent.
Obviously, a big part of this relates to me facing my own mortality.
Our bodies break down, deteriorate and eventually disappear. Yet in some sense
the mark we make on this world can live on past us. All of this is alternately terrifying and
comforting. In this work, even as the original fades and disappears, copies, pieces, echoes, shards of the
original stay. Of course, they disappear eventually too.
In another sense, disappearing can relate to the death of the ego - enlightenment. Perhaps
I am too Western to accept this completely, and I cannot completely extinguish the ego, desire. It
keeps popping up trying to be noticed, to exercise its will, to make an impact - for better or worse.
Out of the destruction of one thing - the original - comes something new - perhaps more interesting.
This piece is a combination of the raw materials, my ideas, chance and the actions of the
viewers. All the factors are interdependent. They interact to create the piece.
Even if you do nothing, things change.
Actions/changes that occur effect future changes, even if not obvious
This piece will never be the same again. Even if you were to run it again with the same image
chance and the interactions of the viewers would make it a different experience. At each point, the image
is different than it has been and will ever be again.
Some people may consider technology cold and inhuman because computers and data do not
appear to have the fragility of humans. This is an illusion. All things are impermanent.
Video
The actual piece contains many chance operations. As such it could never be the same twice.
However, if you do not have a Java enabled browser, this video will give you an idea of the piece. This is a screen capture
of one run I made. The fading and user interactions have been accelerated for demonstration purposes. *updated 3/19/2010*