Mari Velonaki » Other works

Throw

mari — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 08:30:18 +0000

In Throw two projected characters (a male and female) become moving targets as the audience is invited to throw soft satin balls aiming at them. The participants gradually discover that what had seemed at first like an easy task is rather challenging since the characters’ ‘vision’ is faster than human. On the rare occasion of hitting the ‘target’ it becomes dismorphed. The velocity of the hit determines the level of the disfigurement.

Throw is an interactive installation that aims to investigate the dialogical possibilities between the audience and digital characters in relation to current cultural and technological developments. It utilises soft satin balls as an interface and the act of throwing as means to interaction. Charged with fun-fair flair and structured as a game, it provokes the secrecy of the spectacle.

Fish-Bird Circle A

laudanum — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 05:41:58 +0000

This is the first work that i’ve made to introduce my imaginary Fish-Bird characters and was my trigger point for the Fish-Bird series ( 2003-2009).

Pin Cushion

laudanum — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 05:42:23 +0000

In Pin Cushion (2000), a female character is projected onto a latex cushion. Large acupuncture needles are embedded into the character’s face. When the viewer touches the needles, the projected woman responds and devolves. The range at which the image changes, and the instantaneous morphology that the degrading image assumes, depend on physiological properties of the viewer: surface electrical conductivity, resistance to electrical currents, and the latent charge of the viewer’s own body. The digital character’s lifespan and well-being are dictated by the collective intentions of the viewers/participants over the exhibition period. I always thought of Pin Cushion, as a work which explores elements of tactile desire, manipulation, violence and identification. Participants decide whether to control or abstain from manipulating a projected character, which puts them in a position of control over the artwork.

Unstill Life

mari — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 08:24:42 +0000

A woman’s digital portrait alters depending on how her visitors interact with the apples placed on offer in the installation space.

The portrait observes and responds to her visitors in various ways. If a visitor eats the apple, the portrait alters and gains digital weight, in proportion to the number of bites taken; if the visitor abstains, the portrait alters in other ways and eventually vanishes; and if the portrait receives insufficient attention (time spent, apple interactions) over an installation time of several months, animation frames are deleted and the portrait gradually decays.

Red Armchair 4

mari — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 08:25:49 +0000

A spectator walks into a room to witness a projected image of a woman’s back seated on a red armchair. An identical chair is placed in the middle of the room where the spectator can sit facing the the back of the projected woman. On the floor there is a lightbox printed with the “command” words:

DECAYCONSUMETALKDANCESHRINKAWAKELOOKDIE

A microphone adjacent to the spectator’s chair enables him/her to talk to the woman on the screen by forming sentences that will include the “command” words chosen at random. For example: “Talk to me” or “Die for me”.

This is my early Dadaist approach towards interactivity: regardless of how hard the spectator tries to communicate/activate the woman, she responds in mundane ways never revealing her face to the spectator.