Time Portrait

Interactive Video Installation: live video feed, camera, computer, framed plexiglas screen, projector, custom software created in collaboration with Clement Valla.

Installation RISD, 2007

As participants/viewers stand in front of a large framed screen, their movements are captured by a video camera and fed through custom software created using Processing. The software transforms the live video into a fading, layering succession of black and white imagery. As the images layer, they record and display fragments of time and movement that appear as a mixture of still and moving imagery. Stillness is reflected in darker images, and movement fades quickly to grey and then disappears. This play between still, moving and fading imagery reflects upon asects of temporality inherent to the practice of photography and also the genre of portraiture. This temporal or movement portrait fragments time, considering our temporal human condition in relation to the still record of the photograph.