by Chris Ault © 2006
The piece is installed on a flat plasma screen in a waiting room of the Harlem Children’s Health Project. There’s a small web camera pointed back into the room, capturing colors and measuring the room’s overall sound level, which causes the image on the screen to change in the ways described below. The camera is connected to a computer, which is in turn connected to the internet, allowing the image to also be affected by data from the web, such as weather conditions.
The style of the image is simple and childlike, appropriate to the setting of the installation. The elements of the image are inspired by the location of the hospital, with busy streets and busy street life. Viewers will recognize certain buildings, like the Apollo theater, as well as local street signs. The image is animated, with objects and people first appearing on the horizon and then moving down toward the bottom of the screen. Occasionally an elevated train runs across the bridge in the background.
The original image is affected by several sources of live input. The colors of the people on the sidewalk are colors actually occurring in the room, as seen by the web cam. The number of taxis and buses on the street is determined by the room’s overall sound level. The image knows what time it is — when it’s night outside, it’s night in the image. Lights come on in the buildings and on the cars and buses on the street. Every day, the software gets the current sunrise and sunset times from the internet, so the image changes at the right time. The image also gets clear or hazy according to online pollution data. And if it’s especially hazy around sunrise or sunset, the sky in the image glows orange or purple. The software constantly checks weather conditions for the hospital’s location. If it’s raining or snowing outside, it’s raining or snowing in the image. The people on the sidewalk even pull out their umbrellas.
The next version of the project will allow for more direct input from the people in the room. For instance, the train might be triggered by people using their cell phones to send a text message to particular address.
