Simon Biggs
«Shadows: An Interactive Digital Video Projection Installation»

A number of larger than life size naked figures, both male and female, are projected in black and white in a dark space. These figures shuffle uncertainly and constantly look around themselves as if to situate the viewer they cannot see. Viewers enter the room and the path of the video projection beams, thus throwing their own shadows up onto the walls around ound them, along with the projected figures. If a shadow ‹touches› a figure it turns, looking in the direction of the touch, and then takes a step away from the viewers shadow in the opposite direction to the side on which it was touched. As the figure walks away it changes identity, an effect created by morphing techniques, and becomes another person. If the figure is touched on the left-hand side of their body it changes identity and gender, whilst if it is touched on the right-hand side it changes identity but remains the same sex.
Individual figures are composited in real-time into the final image, containing several figures on the wall, allowing them to move, walk and morph independently of one another. The software that controls the behaviour of the figures and locates the location of the viewers‘ shadows was written using object-oriented techniques facilitating the simultaneity and independence of each figures behaviour, as well as augmenting their ‹intelligence.› Each figure is aware of the periphery of its ‹body›, thus being sensitive to the ‹touch› of viewers‘ shadows.
The hardware set-up is designed to allow real-time playback of the video sequences and the real-time sensing of viewers. Sensing is done via video feedback techniques. The computer constantly watches the images it is producing on the wall via a low-light video camera connected to a real-time frame-grabber.

Simon Biggs