Mass Production explores the intersection of computational video, ambient interaction, and architectural space. The installation combines a database-driven video projection with live webcam analysis: as viewers move through the environment, their motion subtly modulates a montage of crowd scenes drawn from Tokyo streets. The projected imagery—portraits of people waiting, drifting, or crossing—shifts in density, tempo, and visual energy in direct response to the activity in the installation space.
By linking the optical surveillance of the street with the monitored movement of gallery visitors, the work creates a feedback loop between two different modes of public observation. The changing visual rhythm operates on an almost subconscious level, offering an immersive, ambient experience designed for a passive gaze that nonetheless generates an interactive relationship with the space.
A key point of enquiry is the fluid position of the viewer/user in relation to the production of content. Mass Production is constructed as an architecture dependent on the presence and behaviour of its participants. A single individual can move between the role of viewer and user simply by altering their pace, orientation, or trajectory within the installation. Their gestures merge with the shifting video surface, forming a composite performance between body and screen.
Mass Production was a collaboration with Russell Richards, who devised the coding in Macromedia Director.
This photograph documents the installation of Mass Production at the Mindplay Conference, hosted at London Metropolitan University in January 2006.
Mass Production featured at a number of digital and interactive media events.