Vidoe Assessment - Evolution of an Idea

Wanting to differentiate ourselves from Rokeby's work, we observed a [possibly unintended] stencilling effect in his work Seen - where the static objects in the foreground of a scene quickly stand out once substantial movement occurs behind those objects.

Exploring this concept further, we realised that the patterns created by movement in a scene could also be used to reveal a "hidden" image in the installations projection - by making this hidden image 2-bit greyscale negative, the classic "afterimage" optical illusion could be created and gradually revealed, then hidden again, as the day (and its associated motion) progressed.

Hence, we drew further inspiration from the stencil graffiti movement, as well as the optical illusion crowd. Each motion though a given scene is noted and quickly 'fades in' behind the stencil, then changes size and/or opacity slowly over time to fade away. The secret stencil, then, may only be revealed during periods of heavy pedestrian traffic, whilst simultaneously being susceptible to the recent phenomenon known as "flash mobbing".