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Description
Interactive Sculpture
Dimensions: 5.3' x 1.75' x 2.8'

Early work from the early 90's. This was only my third interactive piece involving electronics.

To fully interact with this sculpture the viewer would be seated into a foreboding black office chair facing the sculpture as an electrode-lined headband was fitted to them.

The gray wires pictured led from the headband to an EEG inside the piece. The sculpture also featured two video displays that were visible from the chair:

The first display was at the top and was a fish-eye lens angled down towards the chair. It revealed a bleak 3D landscape rendered in black and white.

The second display was recessed altar-like inside the sculpture and featured a serene male face gazing at the viewer.

Once seated the viewer was asked to navigate the 3D landscape using their mind - much like some video games of today.

While the viewer concentrated on navigating the landscape the serene face would start to sneer angrily at them. If the viewer didn't notice the sneer, the face would then begin to whisper words and phrases at the viewer; things like "sinner" and "kill them".

Eventually this barrage would break the viewer's attention on the 3D landscape and cause them to look at the face. By the time the viewer's eyes were able to move down from the 3D display to the sneering, whispering face, it would be sitting quietly back in it's original serene state as if nothing had happened.

Since the viewer's mental activity was being directly monitored along with their behavior in the 3D landscape, only the barest impression of the face's change could be glimpsed before it disappeared - with no concrete evidence that the change actually did occur. Hence the name 'Discrete Paranoia'.

Description
Interactive Sculpture
Dimensions: 5.3' x 1.75' x 2.8'

Early work from the early 90's. This was only my third interactive piece involving electronics.

To fully interact with this sculpture the viewer would be seated into a foreboding black office chair facing the sculpture as an electrode-lined headband was fitted to them.

The gray wires pictured led from the headband to an EEG inside the piece. The sculpture also featured two video displays that were visible from the chair:

The first display was at the top and was a fish-eye lens angled down towards the chair. It revealed a bleak 3D landscape rendered in black and white.

The second display was recessed altar-like inside the sculpture and featured a serene male face gazing at the viewer.

Once seated the viewer was asked to navigate the 3D landscape using their mind - much like some video games of today.

While the viewer concentrated on navigating the landscape the serene face would start to sneer angrily at them. If the viewer didn't notice the sneer, the face would then begin to whisper words and phrases at the viewer; things like "sinner" and "kill them".

Eventually this barrage would break the viewer's attention on the 3D landscape and cause them to look at the face. By the time the viewer's eyes were able to move down from the 3D display to the sneering, whispering face, it would be sitting quietly back in it's original serene state as if nothing had happened.

Since the viewer's mental activity was being directly monitored along with their behavior in the 3D landscape, only the barest impression of the face's change could be glimpsed before it disappeared - with no concrete evidence that the change actually did occur. Hence the name 'Discrete Paranoia'.