Introduction

“Storefront stories” is a series of interactive projections in storefront windows. The installations explore the process of encounter and behaviours in public space. Creating situations inherently full of tension and ambivalence, they focus on the social mechanisms and the line between the real and constructed social actions and expressions.

The animated imagery is rear-projected onto frosted full-length windows facing public walkways. The projections are of simply rendered CG characters, whose behavior is scripted in a game engine to respond dynamically to the presence and behavior of the viewers (which are analyzed with a computer vision software).

Each installation constitues a stand-alone work and can be shown independently. Together the installations add up to a multifaceted, self-contradictory examination of our relationships in public space.

In some scenes the interaction is very direct, in others it’s very subtle. Following the basic instinct of stopping and looking at something that is paying attention to him engages the viewer and alters his path. The space created by the installation becomes a blend of the real and virtual, triggering the automatic reactions appropriate in a public space, while remaining a metaphor that relies on the suspension of disbelief, leading the viewer to examine their relationship to their social and physical environment. The characters are in a sense performers, their behavior and gestures reflecting on the theatricality of our public behaviors.

The first realized installation in the series is 'Sniff'. The two following installations are currently under development.

Sniff

In this first installation in the series, an animated dog follows the viewer, responds to his gestures and
forms a relationship with him based on the history of their interaction.
The dog’s personality is shaped by the relationships he’s had in the past and is expressed in
the modulation of behavior whenever the new viewer approaches him.

"Sniff" hovers between the imaginary and the real. The experience is very familiar yet strange. Dog's behavior hyperbolically externalizes the process of assessment, evaluation and testing we perform every time anything new enters in the scope of our experience. "Sniff" has us unwittingly enter into an intuitive exchange simply by following the basic instinct of stopping and looking at something that is paying attention to us. The emphasis on the moment of engagement focuses viewer’s attention on the imprint that one’s physical presence has on an environment.

“Sniff” partly grew out of interest in philosophical discussion about the mind and mind theory, particularly in what's termed the "commonplace" understanding of mental states and inferring of agency. Our automatic interpretation of behavior as social interaction is especially emblematic in a non-linguistic engagement with the 'other', which in case of Sniff produces a hybrid space of virtual and real emotions, social guess-work and mind-modeling. Sniff is an attempt to trigger an intense, playful and insightful level of engagement at which we solve the "other minds" problem in everyday life.

Software for Sniff was developed with James George.
This installation was supported by the Eperimental Television Finishing Funds grant.

For more information and documentation please see the Sniff blog: www.gravitytrap.com/sniff

Sniff in Sao Paulo, in daylight from karolina sobecka on Vimeo.

It's You

Projected human figures walk along the window paralleling the movement of the pedestrians. Ocasionally one of the figures stops and points at a pedestrian passing in front of the window. This sudden gesture of recognition, confrontation or accusation directed at him startles and singles out the viewer. The other projected figures stop and stare at him, silently questioning, scrutinizing, judging.
The finger pointing is a gesture that is anacceptable according to our social rules. We have internalized it instead, and developed a complex body language around it. The gesture's symbolism however, remains, as evidenced by the common lingustic metaphor.

When the singled-out viewer moves in front of the display, the pointing figure follows him with the extended arm and finger, and as the other projected figures, continues staring.
When the singled-out viewer leaves the display or stays there long enough, the pointing figure lowers his arm, composes himself and continues on his way along the display. Other figures also resume their walk.

This installation will be partly developed at the Minneapolis Art on Wheels residency in May. It's first exhibition will be in Minneapolis, June 5th, 2010.

The gesture of pointing implies knowledge, is a theatrical representation of implication and inquiry. Performed by the blank archetypal ‘person’, it prompts the viewer to invest it with their own introspective inquisitiveness. It invites the viewer to fill in the situation blueprint with specifics of their personal lives. The characters transfer the attention from themselves to the viewer, spotlighting them and moving the staging area from under their feet to the sidewalk, upending the subjective social roles of spectators, performers and participants. Some individuals can feel under attack; the piece can be invasive, implicating and aggressive. One’s anonymity in public space is called into question. Some individuals may love the attention and the initiated engagement. When the viewer experiences the installation repeatedly, the gesture will become one of a recognition, familiarity, and acknowledgement of presence, of interest and of intention to communicate.

The first stage of this project was developed during the MAW residency in Minneapolis. For now I'm using just one character, duplicted several times. The character is male and very simplified, with no detail clothing or personal details. I will be building more characters, and creating more personalized animations for them. Below are a few photos of the first installation, and there are more at flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/32158545@N06/sets/72157624211299822/

Spectator

Projected human figures crowd around something that they obscure from the pedestrian’s view.
Their backs are to the viewer, they are intent on something that’s happening in front of
them. When the pedestrian stands behind one of them, they will shift to open up a space for the pedestrian to see. Pedestrian becomes part of the crowd, obscuring what he sees to other pedestrians behind him. The scenes that will be revealed will be changing, so that the pedestrian can encounter something different every time they pass the installation.

The viewer is acknowledged and becomes a part of the spectator crowd. He or she is inadvertently caught up in the social dynamic of curiosity and spectatorship and is invited to question its automated nature. The lines between the audience and the performers, structured and unstructured behaviors, private and public behaviors are blurred.
The space created by the installation becomes a blend of the real and virtual. The installation triggers social reactions appropriate in a public space and creates real experiences, while at the same time it remains a metaphor that relies on the suspension of disbelief, and leads the viewers to examine their relationship to their social and physical environment. The characters, while being on a literal display, simultaneously take part in the pedestrian’s reality, responding to the social space they help to create.

Artist Statement

Interaction with an image is one of the central themes in my artistic exploration. I'm interested in placing animated content in the viewer's physical reality in such a way that the viewer's actions activate it and become central to the metaphor of the work. The story enfolds from the viewer's actions, creating a visceral and engaging experience. Subjectivity of perception and the border between the internal reality and external world has always been a source of fascination for me.

I aim to inspire people to re-examine their relationships to their physical, social, and ecological environment. I aim to inspire wonder and play that might lead to discoveries and to new realizations. I aim to achieve poetic experiences, part of whose poetry lies in the unexpectedness of juxtapositions facilitated by the use of technology.

I’m interested in creating work that has meaning outside of art context, that engages people’s daily lives. Inserting artwork into public sites offers opportunities for creating intimate experiences for individuals and a structure to share those experience with strangers, forming ad-hoc playgrounds and providing a platform for people to relate to each other. My installations are situations that the viewer enters or passes through, and the experience becomes a kind of a structured improvisation, constitutes a 'performance' of the work, and for other viewers becomes 'theatre'.

Projection is often the medium of choice for my projects. Its nocturnal and impermanent nature can be a powerful counterpoint for urban monumental structures, and a vehicle for combining subjective or imaginary narratives with physical space. It enables the creation of a blend of virtual and real, subjective and objective, permanent and ephemeral that calls to mind the term ‘magical reality’.