In the Blink of an Eye

Interactive Installation
2022

Tree trunks . LCD screens . 110° wide-angle 2.8mm lens webcam . plaster . concrete . cables
TouchDesigner
7” x 7” x 45” . 7” x 9” x 22”

concept

In a speculative future, nature and machine have merged into recombinant forms. Through pushing the boundaries between the natural and artificial, what are the possibilities for an augmented creation, and how may this hybrid form present itself in our everyday lives?

In the Blink of an Eye is a blend of a tree and machine existing in an urban environment as if they grew, assimilated and developed into a merged form. Taking the tree as a first-person perspective, the installation reflects and visualizes the presence and thinking of nature in urban space through the sculptural composition of tree, concrete, and LCD displays.

context

The trees around us have become part of our memory of a city, then how are we memorized by the trees?

Do they silently observe our comings and goings, our ceaseless preoccupations with ourselves? "In the Blink of an Eye" encourages us to shift our perspective and consider the world through the lens of the creatures that share our environment.

The vision of trees

︎ The Quaking Aspens often appear to do self-amputation by dropping smaller branches that don’t receive enough sunlight and that leaves a scar on the trunk of the tree, so called “Aspen Eyes”.

The installation visualizes the “senses” and “memory” of tree

A digital motion-sensitive eye that moves according to surrounding motions; a sound-reactive wheel that reflects the environmental sound and compose to a tree ring form; and a live camera that captures what the tree sees then process to form the memory of the tree(tree wheels).

the hybrid creation

^{· augmented trees ·} Eyes of the tree watch and observe the world around the them.
Its memory is continually constructed and formed by the live ambience sound, and visualized on its tree wheel.