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Kinetic art · 2024 · 16 × 16 mirror pixels
Anonymous
Move your mouse or finger and you walk past the light. Other visitors wander the gallery too. Only the mirrors where a shadow stays for 0.5 seconds turn to face forward and reflect the person standing there; the tilted mirrors send the light back to the ceiling.
How it works
01 Light
A spotlight lights the wall
The lit mirrors tilt upward and throw the light back to the ceiling, and the wall turns white.
02 Shadow
A visitor steps in front of the light
A shadow falls on the wall. The shadow is the visitor made anonymous, another self that moves as the visitor intends.
03 Mirror
Only the shadowed mirrors turn
Only the mirrors where the shadow stays for 0.5 seconds turn to face forward. Where visitors thought they were hidden, they see themselves.
Artist’s note
Anonymous begins with the subject, its influence, and the relationship between the two.
Anonymity grants individuals in society freedom, release and courage. In doing so, it creates the illusion that the individual is separate from their influence. Yet the individual still acts as a subject that exerts influence. The artist sees the consequences of anonymity as depending on the subject’s intent, and holds that the individual’s intent matters.
In front of the work, the viewer meets themselves projected as a shadow. The shadow is the viewer’s other, anonymous self, yet it moves as the subject intends, which points to what “anonymous consequences” are like.
Inside the work, the viewer exists as mirrors, pixel by pixel. The “individual” reflected in the mirrors becomes one work made of 256 pixels, and in turn becomes the subject that forms a “group”, such as “public opinion”.
Like the light the artist never meant to throw onto the ceiling, “anonymous consequences” reach places the individual never intended.
Anonymous moves as the viewer intends, and through the “me” reflected in the mirrors it offers a chance to reflect on oneself, behind the anonymity, as a “subject”.
Anonymous (〈익명〉), 2024, mixed media, 150×150, kinetic art — Carter Choi, Seohyun Bae, Yangmyeong Yu, Yejin Yun, Heeseo Yun, Junhyeok Jang
Spec
- Work
- Anonymous (〈익명〉), 2024, mixed media, 150 × 150 cm, kinetic art
- Exhibited
- Chung-Ang University School of Art & Technology graduation exhibition, 2024.6.28
- Build
- 16 × 16 = 256 pixels · 8 cm acrylic mirrors · SG90 servos · digital light sensor modules · 52 Arduino Nanos (distributed control) · two MDF boards · hung on wires
- Team
- Carter Choi, Seohyun Bae, Yangmyeong Yu, Yejin Yun, Heeseo Yun, Junhyeok Jang
- Role
- Team lead · technical director (concept, firmware, presentation)