"Lightpools" or "El Ball del Fanalet" - Perry Hoberman

https://vimeo.com/157922712

This was a work mentioned in the reading “Performing Interactivity” by S. Dixon. In it, there are light lanterns or “llum del fanalet” that are tracked in three-dimension space and have their light projected onto the floor via a projector (instead of how a lantern would normally project its light onto the floor). Those viewing the exhibit walk around in the dark with the lanterns being their only light and are able to spawn “proto-objects” which move with their light. These “proto-objects” can interact with other “proto-objects” if put close together; the two “proto-objects” will do a dance.

There a lot of things we’ve drawn from this work as part of my inspiration for eye contact. For one, there is an intense atmosphere in which there is a lot of focus. Everyone is in the dark, honed in on the light from their lantern. This creates an intimate interaction. We want to create an isolating environment like this one in our project. Also, these lanterns are part of the tradition of those people. We think this is parallel of how eye contact is a big and interesting part of human culture. Lastly, there is immediate intuition on how the interaction plays out; people are very familiar with how light is supposed to cast from a lantern. We hope to emulate this so people can easily see how blinking influence what’s happening.