The interactive environment of "Very Nervous System" by David Rokeby enables the visitor to produce sounds with the movements of his body.

In the series of installations that fall under the general title "Very Nervous System", I use video cameras, image processors, computers, synthesisers and a sound system, to create a space in which the movements of one's body create sound and/or music. I created the work for many reasons, but perhaps the most persuasive reason was a simple impulse towards contrariness. The computer as a medium is strongly biased. And so my reaction while using the computer was to work solidly against these biases. Because the computer is purely logical, the language of interaction should strive to be intuitive. Because the computer removes you from your body, the body should be strongly engaged. Due to the computer's activity taking place on tiny playing fields of integrated circuits, the encounter with the computer should take place in a human-scaled physical space. The computer is objective and disinterested, therefore the experience should be intimate.

The active ingredient of the work is its interface. The interface is unusual because it is invisible and diffused, occupying a large volume of space, whereas most interfaces are focused and definite. Though diffused, the interface is vital and strongly textured, through time and space. The interface becomes a zone of experience, of multidimensional encounters.The language of encounter is initially unclear, but evolves as one explores and experiences.

The installation is a complex but quick feedback loop. The feedback is not simply "negative" or "positive", inhibitory or reinforcing; the loop is subject to constant transformation as the elements, human and computer, change in response to each other. The two interpenetrate until the notion of control is lost and the relationship becomes one of encounter and involvement.

The diffused, parallel nature of the interaction and the intensity of the interactive feedback loop can produce a state that is almost shamanistic. The self expands (and loses itself) to fill the installation area and, by implication, the world. After 15 minutes in the installation, people often experience an after-image of the encounter, feeling directly involved in the random actions of the street.

This unexpected sense of almost spiritual experience, determined a lot of the initial development of the installation, but is only one aspect of the work. I often feel that it is necessary to work against the momentum of this experience and particularly its lesser manifestations (senses of power and affirmation, or even neatness), because they can overwhelm and mask underlying aspects of the work that are as important. By adding other sculptural and visual elements to the installation, I have begun to focus the attention of the interactor away from the excitement, making the interactive relationship more visible.

The installation could be described as a sort of instrument that you play, by using your body, but that would imply a level of control which I am not particularly interested in. I am interested in creating a complex and resonant relationship between the interactor and the system.