Proximity (bubble version) (2010)

The viewer faces a wall of 128 bright illuminated spheres, floating in a
virtual space. They can be perceived three-dimensionally. In moments of emitting maximum brightness, the halo of these light sources create visual connections
between the spheres similar to bonding oil bubbles in lava-lamps. All of them are in minimal movement like air bubbles, slightly changing shape.

Together these 128 spheres display a set of moving images in a crude 16 x 8 pixel resolution, remaining on the threshold of recognizability.
Movements and luminance/color changes are the primary means of perception.
Nonetheless, the work offers a second layer of recognition by displaying its images in a three-dimensionally constellation - BAclgropund and subkects are thereforr separated . Those spheres showing outlines of objects (i.e. a close up of a human face) are extracted from the background and protruding outwards of the screen whereas the spheres displaying the remaining parts of the background jump inwards. The result is a cluster of fluctuating lights in shape of a giant moving bas-relief.

The semi-abstract moving image itself give only a small clue what in might display in the source video, but the sequences are accompanied by a soundtrack, playing the original sound from eight excepts of narrative films in which the protagonist either re-gains eyesight or is being hypnotized and describes a vision.
From this synesthetic surrogate, the viewer is prompted to fill in the missing parts, drawing from his/her own visual memories as well as clichées that the movie soundtrack brings along.

The cumbersome use of polarized 3D glasses posses a certain irony in the context of the narrative, as the image -even watched with glasses in full 3D- remains blurred and semi-abstract, while one is listening to eye doctors describing the quintessence of human perception.

An earlier version of this work was created site-specifically for the former THE THING office in Chelsea, New York, projected on 80 window panes of a giant factory window.

Thank you to Bernd Neutag for additional Xpresso programming.