Body Movies
Relational Architecture No. 6
Hauptplatz, Linz
Body Movies is a “relational architecture” installation presented
at the Hauptplatz
Square in Linz. The piece entails over 1,000 square metres of interactive
projections
activated by passers-by.
Thousands of portraits taken on the streets of Linz,
Rotterdam, Madrid, Mexico and Montréal are projected on giant screens,
using robotically
controlled projectors located on towers around the square. However, the
portraits
are completely washed out by powerful xenon light sources placed at ground
level. When people cross the square their shadows appear on the screens
and the
portraits are revealed within them. The shadows and portraits generate
a play of
reverse puppetry and embodied representation. Silhouettes measure between
2
and 20 metres high, depending on how far people are from the screens.
A camera-based tracking system monitors the location of the shadows in
real time.
The computer vision interface, which is shown and explained on the square,
triggers
feedback sounds when a shadow and a portrait match in scale. When the
shadows
have revealed all the portraits in a given scene, an automatic command
is issued to
change the scene to the next set of portraits, frustrating a totalizing
representation.
This way the people on the square are invited to match different representational
narratives.
Up to 60 people may take part at any given time, creating a collective
experience
that nonetheless allows discrete individual participation.
Body Movies is the sixth in the series of “relational architecture”
installations that
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer (CDN/MEX) has designed for cities in Europe and America
for the past seven years, usually in collaboration with Will Bauer, Conroy
Badger
and others. These interactive interventions in Madrid, Linz, Graz, Mexico
City,
Havana, Istanbul and Rotterdam have been exploring the intersection between
new
technologies, public space, active participation and “alien memory”.