This installation was a natural extension of my work with adaptive posterization. Using a version of the same algorithm I developed in my habitat piece, I processed live video of traffic and passers-by.
My intention was to highlight the interconnectedness and inherent aesthetic appeal of the street scene. Each element of the scene leaves a semi-permanent park on the projected image, and each element affects the color of every other element. Scene elements with similar colors attempt to merge, whereas elements with dissimilar colors are resistant to merging.
Individuals interacting with the video can, unintentionally or intentionally, alter the scene. By eliminating all traces of a color (for instance, covering it with one's body), one can force a new color to emerge.
Vehicular traffic leaves traces on the scene as evidence of its passing. Eventually the scene becomes cluttered, until something different enough from the other colors acts as an eraser. A bus is large and bright enough to do this.
Like vehicles, foot traffic leaves its mark on the scene. However, the mark of a person is more tenuous than that of a car or bus. People start as transparent shapes, and gain solidity as they traverse the scene. But their trace soon fades.
