Stalker Series

(2008 – 2009)

A series of work exploring the effects of interacting with objects that are not directly visible but can be felt encroaching upon the viewers space. The experience evokes an feeling of being followed or crept up on, created by the work which the viewer is informing through their interaction. It aims to challenge the interactor, pushing their boundaries of comfort. Once you are aware of the large inflatable shape growing behind you, at what point would you break the connection fearing the possibility and effect that the balloon may burst? This is often used in a situation which presses the viewer into an enclosed space. The Project has been taken in various directions and was displayed at Futuresonic in 2009 in a narrative form entitled ‘immersion in Fiction’.

Immersion In Fiction

(May 2009)

             

Balloon, plastic tubing, air pump,
proximity sensor, arduino

Continue the ongoing series of works exploring an interaction with objects that are not directly visible, but can be felt encroaching upon the viewers space. Stalker Project, Immersion in Fiction is an interactive work created through direct association with a fictitious character. ‘Deep, penetrating eyes stayed fixed upon her every move, even as she glided into the kitchen, carefully and graciously moving dishes and cleaning surfaces, they watched and waited’. Turning the viewer away from the work in which they are helping to realize physically places them within the context of the scene as they themselves are stalked by an unseen presence.

Stalker

(2008)

Balloon, plastic tubing, air pump, blow sensor

The first part in the Stalker Series. This project uses sensitive blow sensors linked to a large deflated balloon hanging directly behind the viewer. As they interact with the sensor the state of inflation in the hanging balloon fluctuates, adjusting to the air pressure applied over the sensor. Although the viewer is unable see the balloon expanding, they are made aware of its growing presence through it’s increasing occupation of the space, light and sound close behind. The tension of knowing what may happen to the balloon as it expands to it’s limits is enhanced by the creeping darkness it casts over their shoulder engulfing the space of the instillation in shadow.