Sphere @ Jiri Svestka Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic, 2001
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Sphere is an interactive power transformer. It enables spectators to influence
the behavior of a virtual model with their own energy.
The Sphere project works through the transformation of human energy into
a self-destructive virtual potential.
It is an interactive installation which attempts to place two levels of
perception side by side - the real and the virtual. The spectator has a real
object at his disposal to influence the virtual image.
Human energy represents here to certain extent an increasingly important factor.
Afterwards,though, its features can move in the opposite direction.
A sphere of diameter approximately 25 cm represents the real part of the installation.
Its interior is made of a soft foam rubber and there are power readers (tensometers)
installed on the surface of its kernel. The whole sphere is covered by a white silicon.
It has a cold and unfriendly apperance,it feels, however, very soft and supple to the
touch. The sphere is connetcted with its vitrual image on the screen via computer.
The spectator interacts the moment he touches the real object. The energy generated
through the contact with the sphere activates its virtual image.
This, dependant on the amount of energy,first changes its shape - i.e. the virtual
sphere absorbs the energy inserted into the object and slowly increases its volume.
The supply of further energy gfradually makes the surface of the virtual object red-hot.
The white cold sphere turns into a red-hot object, which absorbs further energy to such
an extent, that it is "swallowed" by power.
The virtual sphere "burns up" with maximum energy input. If the virtual object is
destroyed, the computer generates a new model of similar qualities.
If the spectator quits the interaction without having destroyed the object by the
generated energy, the image returns to its initial position.
Variable.
The Sphere project was developed in multimedia laboratory in The Soros Center for Contemporary Arts in Prague. The show at Jiri Svestka Gallery was also accesible on-line on the Internet as a first on-line show in Czech Republic.