My interactive project is going to be a prototype of my
final project. This piece is part of my exploration of the relationships I have
with people and how both people can benefit. I have always seen myself as an
individual who never needed company of another being to make me feel fulfilled.
This being said, social norms in today’s society place so much importance on
finding your “other half” in order to complete yourself. In my piece, I want to
create a portrait out of LED’s whose brightness is controlled by a small
microphone. Next to my piece I will supply a few conversation started for
people to grab and begin discussions with other people viewing the art. The
louder the volume is, the more the piece will light up. I want this piece to be
very hard to light up completely and require lots of people congregating around
not only to create a sense of community but to express my ideas of how
detrimental these ideas of self are. If we see the portrait as an art piece,
its purpose is to light up and be viewed. But if we make it dependent on the viewers,
there will be times when the piece might light up very dimly and not serve its
full purpose, leaving the viewer unsatisfied and the piece incomplete. I want
to add one microphone in this first step of the project but for my final I would
like to get more advanced and add more microphones and maybe change the actions
of the LED’s based on different variables.