skin, 2006 is a real-time interactive installation that visualizes a dialogue between physical and digital senses of "touch". The installation consists of screen that works as artificial skin, onto which hyperstereo skin-related high-definition video imagery is projected. The imagery is accompanied by a generative composition of digitally manipulated and synthesized skin sounds: porous breathing, the friction of skin on various surfaces, and sonic representations of the electrical impulses inherent in skin at the molecular level. These skin-derived media serve as an exploration of a new territory:the intersection of the body as landscape/mindscape and the body's own traces of touch.
By reacting to physical interaction with the screen, the skin-derived media are virtually deformed by the participating audience. Physical gestures are translated into accentuated and non-literal digital deformations of the projected imagery while new sounds, both organic and synthetic, are added to the mix to accompany these deformations.

credits
sound composition & design: John Kannenberg
technical expertise, guidance & help: Robert Kooima
Lighting tips: Stephen Cady
Special thanks to: Dana Plepys, Sabrina Raaf, Dan Sandin, Daria Tsoupikova, the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL), the School of Art & Design (UIC), Anastasios Golnas, Kimon Kosts, Tim Loucopoulos [ more information ]

AD 597 - Master's Project, Prof. Doug Ischar

skin, 2006 [ movie clip, 640 x 480 px, 15.19 MB ]

Thesis document [ PDF 1.46 MB ]