Sep 10, 2011

INTERACTIVITY & TECHNOLOGY: videoportfolio Sneja_D (2011)

I was always fascinated by interactive installations that make spectators become part of a show.

In ‘Diect I & Direct II’ (2006), I used for the first time moving detectors which I hid in different corners of the gallery. Spectators activated different sequences just by walking through the gallery.


'Direct', 2006 (Exhibition: Observe-Adapt-Direct)




In ‘ISO pop corn - 2nd Generation human designed pop corn’ , I use Isadora for tracking and triggering, a recently discovered program which I am currently experimenting with and which I wish to explore in my future projects. Isadora is a 'graphic programming environment for Macintosh and Windows that provides interactive control over digital media, with special emphasis on the real-time manipulation of digital video'.


‘ISO pop corn - 2nd Generation ...’, 2009-2011



‘ISO pop corn - 2nd Generation ...’ is an interactive video installation created in collaboration with Elisabeth Flunger (percussionist and composer) for 3-5 simultaneous video projections with multi-track-sound, with or without live musical performance.

The interactive installation consists of 20 video clips. Each sequence shows the explosion of a different grain of corn. Each sequence is different in the sense that each grain of corn, when it explodes, gives birth to a new shape, a new set of movements and sounds. Each explosion engenders its own implicit narrative environment and every environment is translated with an acoustic emotion: the excitement that comes before the explosion, the relatively intense and virulent outbreak followed by the phase of release, exhaustion or absence.

I captured the transformation from corn to pop corn with a high speed camera. The thousands of still images were cleaned, edited in interactive segments and played back as a movie at 25 fps. I asked Elisabeth Flunger (www.eflunger.com) to produce the soundtrack with her usual instruments which are heavy metallic objects and create an acoustic atmosphere with sounds which you would not expect to hear in connection to ultra light elements like pop corn.

The video sequences and sounds are trigger by the movements of spectators and dancers. Through the randomly activated scenes, the installation offers unlimited variations of compositions and lengths and merges with additional sounds generated during timed music performances by Elisabeth Flunger. The spectator who has also become actor is surrounded by different acoustic environments: the sounds triggered by himself interact and merge with the live performances.

The installation ‘ISO popcorn - 2nd Generation ... is a tribute to nature, its power and impulsive side. It is a tribute to the beauty of any act or natural process, which by definition, is never completely predictable, nor controllable.

CONSUMERISM & ADVERTISING: videoportfolio Sneja_D 2011

Consumerism and advertising are omnipresent topics in my artistic works. In my current video series entitled 'Power Corn', which I initiated in 2005, I point to the consumer society and the helplessness of Man in regards to invisible new growing powers such as the one of the food and advertising industry: GM Food has invaded our supermarkets our plates and our lives.

In 'ISO pop corn - 1st generation human designed pop corn' (2007), I analyze in our global society the phenomenon of applying ISO standards in almost every domain of our life and as a reaction to that I suggest the absurd production of ISO pop corn, perfectly shaped and conceived by Man, glorious inventor with divine power. To illustrate the idea of standardization and mass production. I used 3D rapid prototyping software and production. 'ISO pop corn-1st Generation…’ is a metaphor for the profit and gadget oriented consumer society. For this piece I have borrowed the language from the advertising world and mass production.


ISO pop corn - 1st Generation human designed pop corn, 2007



Power Corn, 2005

MEDICAL INFLUENCE: video portfolio 2011

This is a sequence from the Sneja_D's 5 minute video portfolio (2011 edition)

In my video installations I explore the worlds of human anatomy and medicine, food, consumerism and advertising whilst I employ the media of video, graphic design, Rapid Prototyping and interactive software.

For the past few years I have been interested in an expanded viewpoint of artistic practice, in borrowing the language and methodologies so that there is a cross-fertilization between my work in the medical world and my artistic practice. This began through the creation of artistic videos based on footage that was captured with an endoscope during gastroscopies (2H4- Too Hungry For, 2003) or video recordings of dental treatments (Don’t blame your dentist, 2005)