For the sake of this blog post I'll be focussing more on the IoT aspects than the artistic side of the project.
Project Brief:
Physical / Digital Installation where you use your own body to complete a circuit thus forcing users to be in a very specific place within the physical installation in order to experience the installation. A way of limiting/controlling the way in which people can interact with your installation.
Why:
I've been very interested in how art can make you feel specific emotions, artists like Marina Abramovic and Mark Rothko, two artists with different mediums that have an extremely high turnover rate for making people tear up and cry. It's a fascinating phenomenon because for so many, art is a purely subjective endeavor, a take I strongly disagree with and yet even I cannot really even believe how effective they are at making people emotional.
In my research about these two artists I came to a conclusion that one key aspect to their art is the frameworks with which they build and the space they give you within those spaces. What I mean by frameworks is just the foundation and mind frame for how to observe their work, this is built through the construction of their pieces, the way they're displayed / experienced, and in the advertising / their names. Being known as ________ kind of artist or an artist who explores __________ really changes the way you walk into and experience their art. I noticed that my photos were perceived very differently when printed massively and on a wall versus very small on the wall, people being able to walk up to them freely vs having to be seated farther away. This IoT idea of removing the experience when the circuit isn't closed is an exploration of this idea, of constraining users to a specific space in order to experience the artwork.
How:
I can't quite remember where I found it but I remember working with a beginner paper circuit example where you used your hand to complete the circuit, at 3.3v and 5v the current isn't strong enough to cause any health concerns. In the example they basically had a an LED set to lit at all times and then broke the circuit allowing space for the user's hand to connect the two sides of the conductive tape. The reason that I want to use conductive tape and paper circuits is mainly because it seems to be the most effective way that I can think of that actually limits usage to one person at a time usage. If I used two pressure sensors or two buttons, two separate people could trigger the sensors together and thus change the way that the installation is intended to be interacted with. By creating a circuit that's supposed to be completed by a human body and with such a low voltage if you tried to link arms or link hands with someone to bypass the spacial requirements it wouldn't have enough charge to complete the circuit.
