May 10 & 11 5pm-9pm
Spring Show 2005
721 Broadway
at Waverly Place
4th Floor
South Elevators
New York, NY 10003
For additional
information email
itp.inquiries@nyu.edu
or call 212.998.1880
| Peepholes | ||
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| Author(s): | Mirit Tal Ryan Holsopple |
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| Instructor: | Igoe, Tom O'Sullivan, Dan Even, Tirtza |
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| Class: | Networked Objects Networked Expression Video Art |
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| URL: | http://stage.itp.nyu.edu/~mt1192/peepholes | |
| Keywords: | surveillance, privacy, paranoia, keyhole, peephole, eye-tracking, internet-camera, live image processing | |
| This project allows a person to look through a keyhole in a door in one space and view inside an old living room in another space.
In the old living room, there is an old console television, the eye of the person that is peeping into the room is displayed on the old TV. | ||
| There is a door that has a peephole and a keyhole. Remotely located, there is an old console television. A web camera is placed behind the peephole in the door which gives a fish-eye glance at the area outside of the door. The image is seen on the console television monitor. When a user looks into the peephole he doesn\'t see anything, but his image is placed on the television monitor. When the person bends down and looks through the keyhole he sees an image that is sent from a security camera in the area of the console television. In the same time his eye is being tracked by an eye detecting camera that is located on the other side of the keyhole. The image of their eye is then seen on the console television monitor. If the person looks through the keyhole from different angles, the camera that is located in the vicinity of the console television moves, allowing for the person to navigate their sight in the other area. And by that revealing the fact that he\'s being watched as well. | ||
| Personal Statement: | The feeling of being watched as we live out lives is unsettling, but it is a fact of our everyday lives. Cameras and microphones are always pointed at us and we are not alone. Knowing this, do we change how we go about or daily lives?
Everywhere you go, take a moment to look around you, there is a high possibility that you are being monitored. Walk into any deli or store and there is probably a camera on you. Most stores have motion sensors that are set off every time you enter or exit. We are so used to these devices that they have become ingrained in our subconscious. This project allows for another look at how we see things and are conscious of the fact that we are being watched. There is also a great conceit in the placement of the eye on the console television: you are watching television, but it is also watching you. Media is a two way communication and Peepholes is a project that exposes how we see the world and how the world sees us. | |
| Background: | There is something about voyeurism that is fascinating to humans. The idea of watching something that is private inspires curiosity and subversion. What drives us to keep looking through cracks and peepholes even though we know we are spying on something private?
Inspired by the constraints of privacy in our world today we have used inspiration from the past to investigate these natural urges of curiosity. Marcel Duchamp\'s \"Given: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas\" is a main influence, this was his last art work that is intended for one viewer at a time to look through a peephole in a large wooden door allowing for a glimpse at a haunting scenario of a dead woman, stripped naked in weeds, constructed for the Philadelphia Museum of Art. This in conjunction with Christian Marclay\'s recreation of Duchamp\'s NYC studio door in his piece \"210 W. 14th St.\" have been inspiration for our interactive take on voyeurism and privacy. | |
| Audience: | This piece is considered approachable by an audience in an art installation or performance environment. The work can be viewed by an audience made up of all ages. Because of the two location scenario of the installation, the audience has the possibility of acting as voyeurs in different contexts of the term. | |
| User Scenario: | A user looks through a keyhole in an old door and controls the movement of a camera in an old living room with the movement of their eye. Visitors in the old living room, where there is a console television, see the eye of the voyeur on the old television set. | |
| Technical System Description: | Eye tracking is processed through java.
This tracking recognizes the pupil of a human eye within the keyhole. Once a pupil is detected, the location of the pupil in the keyhole is sent (via TCP to Xport) to a microcontroller that receives the location of the pupil and in turn moves a security camera that is placed on a pan and tilt camera mount. The image of the eye that is tracked is sent by a composite cable directly to the console television that displays the image of the eye that is looking through the keyhole. The camera that is located in the vicinity of the Console Television is streaming a live video feed to a web browser, this image is placed on a small television behind the keyhole allowing for the person that is looking through the keyhole to see the area surrounding the console television. When there is no pupil detected in the keyhole (no one is looking through it) then the image seen on the television is that of a camera located behind the peephole on the door. | |
| Project References, Research and Literature: | Sunpak pan and tilt camera mount:
http://www.21best.com/21_best/electronic/security/video/pan_tilt/for_sale_3.html x10 - NINJA Pan \'n Tilt Camera Mount with Remote Control http://www.x10.com/cameras/vk74a_s_k_ps49.html \'Given:1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas\' by Marcel Duchamp http://www.freshwidow.com/etant-donnes2.html http://www.csulb.edu/~karenk/20thcwebsite/438final/ah438fin-Info.00037.html Christian Marclay \"210 W 14th St\" The artist recreated the door of Duchamp\'s studio in NYC http://www.artcritical.com/baron/JB-RBArmory2005cont.htm | |
| Conclusions: | We want to give the people in the spaces the feeling of following and being watched. The effect of tracking the eye of the voyeur as they watch the person inside the old living room is a physical representation of the concept and paranoia of surveillance. | |