about     performance     people     history      contact     home   ARTIST STATEMENT pdf full version As architecture takes on trendy names such as “reactive”, “active” or “organic”, it is only normal to expect it to breathe, or at least show some sign of vitality. How can we test this? Are we allowed to use defibrillators to enhance some of its characteristics? Can we augment its vitality by messing with its nervous system, the same way neurologists sought to explore the brain through psychedelics? An unusual project such as blinking the lights is a test that displaces expectations about the staticity of buildings. The Ev building is equipped with motion sensors to manage lighting heating lighting and security: what can be derived from this infrastructure when it is explored away from its functional vocation? What happens when the lights leave the main choreography and starting pacing at another tempo? technical description switches Blink works by linking the lights relays to a master room input. When the master room's lights are activated, other rooms receive the information and blink accordingly. The essential component is the electric switches, as shown above. They are an add-on to the electric box. It works like this: the switch activates current between 2 pins immediate for the other. One wire takes input from the master room and transmits it to other rooms with windows. streaming Blinkers in the master room log on the performance page and receive a live video feed taken from outside the building. This enables them to see the result of their action as they are performing it. The streaming is done using a small surveillance camera which sends the signal over radio frequency. The latter is transformed from RCA to firewire using a mini-dv camera, then streamed using quicktime broadcaster running on Darwin Server. Thanks to Harry Smoak and Sebastian Speier. masking Elie Zananiri made a wonderful flash application than enables us to mask non-immediate floors to blinkers. This is the technological response to the Cellular Automata challenge, as explained in the artist statement. The swf masks the live video according to coordinates taken from the xml page. An admin user can generate coordiates for the mask and link them to a specific room.   Digital Spa inc. © 2006
Digital Spa inc. © 2005
	Digital Spa inc. © 2005