UnSaid is an interactive video artwork that uses face detection through Open Frameworks. Exhibited at the 2010 Spier Contemporary, Alterating Conditions: Performing Performance Art in South Africa, in 2011 and the MEANING MOTION exhibition at Wits Art Museum in 2013.
The piece was made in response to the representation of politicians in the media, and the eternal “empty speech” of political figures against the ineffectiveness of the public. Through interaction the work puts the participant in a position where their voice and the act of expression is put into play, and their agency is challenged.
How it works: The installation invites the participant to interact by immediately placing a black square in the video mirror of the installation. This then excludes the viewer personality by putting them position where they can’t see their own faces. A single mircophone in the installation invites the participants to speak or sing into it. When they do, the black square lifts and a golden pollen crown begins to emerge from the heads participants in the video mirror. But the this delight is short lived, if the participant keeps speaking the program tries to blank out the participants mirror figure, first with crosses over the eyes, then the mouth; and then a visual noise over the whole figure. This encourages the participant to stop and when they do the black square comes back – putting the participant in a perpetual cycle of speaking and censoring.
Find more images on my Flickr Set here.