Intention

A source of inspiration for this project was Blinking from Module 4, where if either of two people would blink, the other person would push a button and create some sort of visual effect in software that they had written. It was an interesting concept because blinking and eye contact complement each other, and eye contact is something we had been interested in exploring. The amount of research which has been done on eye contact was intriguing: how it affects people's relationships, and how it helps to forge a human connection. By making a piece centering around eye contact, we were hoping to create something which would leave participants different than they were before interacting with the piece, which relates to a common theme of emotion in art. The piece aimed to be memorable to the participants, and at the very least invoke thought about their personal relationships. The shepard tone was chosen because it is an auditory illusion, and in our research we found that making prolonged eye contact can sometimes cause hallucinations and visual illusions, so they would together create an intense experience.