interactive installation

There exists ambivalent attitude towards amber from the point of view of electronics – on one side, it’s an ideal dielectric, from another side, it gave the name to all “electricity”. The main idea of the project is to use amber at the same time as decoration and as non-standard conductor of data, which so to say implements the poetic “amberization” of information and as a result, of the visitors’ portraits.


The visitor makes a self-portrait which is transformed into the data flow represented by flashes which are transmitted through large pieces of amber. Every portrait is transformed into a low-resolution picture, where every pixel has 256 gradations of brightness. The information about pixels’ brightness is further transferred as flashes of light through the pieces of amber and is perceived by a photoresistor. A special screen is showing the image appearing pixel by pixel; this image is later printed on a photo printer. The speakers which supplement the installation emit sounds which correspond to the brightness of each pixel.

Made for an exhibition “Russian Amber”, Museum of Moscow, 2015.

video by: Nikolai Zheludovich


hard:

- arduino
- servo motors
- opto pair
- 2 channel sound system

soft:

- max/msp
- pure data