Eden
Location: TAC, Eindhoven, the NetherlandsPeriod: 30-10-2008 to 02-11-2008
Description
From October 30th until November 2nd 2008 the international festival Image Radio took place in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Image Radio is an event that focuses on the intersection of art, technology and media. An exhibition of over 20 installations in public space, artist talks, Live Cinema and the symposium 'Living in the Datacloud' presented the latest artistic developments to art and technology lovers as well as the general public. The festival theme was 'Explore your invisible paradise'. Especially for this festival Danielle Roberts developed the installation Eden.
At the heart of this interactive installation is the Noldus FaceReader software. This proprietry software can analyse facial expressions in real time. It runs in the background as visitors of the exhibition sit down on a stool in front of a webcam. The usual output of graphs and bars is replaced by a dynamic animation of different landscapes. Every mood recognized by FaceReader has a typical landscape assigned to it. Clouds, horizon contours and colours set the tone for the main mood measured. Elements on the 'ground' reinforce the mood the landscape expresses. In the 'sky' there is a collection of symbolic elements that hint at the other moods that are measured by FaceReader.
The landscape animation is projected from behind onto a large screen that acts as a view for the visitor. But instead of looking outside, the landscapes gives a view of the inside of the person looking into the camera. In this way each visitor can explore his or her invisible paradise.
Every 1.5 seconds new data is collected from the FaceReader log and converted into a landscape giving the visitors constant feedback.
Technique
Webcam (Philips SPC 900NC PC), beamer, screen (260 x 160 cm)
Face recognition software: Noldus FaceReader 1.0
Custom program is made in Adobe Flash CS3 using ActionScript 3
This project was sponsored by Noldus.
Photography by Anja van Eersel