Molecular Informatics ver. 2.0
'Molecular Informatics ver. 2.0' (1996), is an interactive work by Seiko Mikami in which eye tracking creates morphogenic substances on a screen.
Molecular Informatics ver. 2.0: installation in use
The audience is surrounded by four video projections on three walls. Two of these move across the wall, while two other projections are fixed in place. The movement of the projections is caused by two members of the audience. They 'enter' a virtual world of Seiko Mikami by putting on a special pair of glasses. These contain a sensor that can register eye movements. Parallel to the eye movements of the visitors the two projections move across the wall. They show molecular structures that are being generated by the eye movements. When a visitor-with-spectacles looks at a 'point' in the virtual space, this is converted into XYZ-coordinates. This data is then converted in real-time into computer generated images of molecules. The space 'navigated' by looking and in the wake of the viewing angle chains of molecules are generated and projected. These molecular structures remain in the space; each new visitor adds his own image and together they create a world. With every molecule that is added to the chain a tone is sounded, so the speed of the movement can also be perceived in audible form.
In Molecular Informatics the mostly uncontrolled and unconscious eye movements are converted into data and transformed into forms and structures in a virtual molecular world. These molecular structures are not images or imitations of the 'real' world. People do not control most of their eye movements, so the forms are only partly caused by looking in a very specific direction, as looking here is not a very conscious activity. The structures here are 'caused', but they are not 'made'. Mikami's world is a world of possibilities, where looking produces visible results. The fact that we look, becomes visible. What we see, stays out of the picture.
Nederlands / Dutch description
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