On a monitor embedded in an object shaped like a white marshmallow, visitors can see footage of themselves filmed by a camera installed outside the object. These images are deformed - rippled, jagged, segmentalized by thin horizontal lines, or randomly swaying in response to movement. When taking a closer look, one can notice that only moving objects are distorted, while still ones don’t change. This effect is achieved by feeding the images filmed by the video camera into a computer, and introducing a delay before redrawing them on the monitor. Video images consist of 30 frames per second, and when slowing down the time of rewriting the single frames, for example, movement occurring in that time becomes visible on the screen as a trajectory from one location to another.

Visitors are prompted to engage in a dialogue with the work by moving in front of the camera while observing how their pictures change on the screen. The work is a representative piece of interactive art with the characteristic interactive, participatory notion of media art.

IWAI Toshio Profile
IWAI Toshio started producing experimental animation in university in the early 1980s. He has since presented works inspired by historical pre-cinematic visual devices such as the Phenakistiscope and Zoetrope, as well as his body of interactive work linking sound and image. In recent years, he has co-developed an electronic music instrument "TENORI-ON" with YAMAHA Corporation. On the other hand, he has branched into non-computer creations, such as handmade toys, and picture books for children.
Past Exhibition / Event