Student Design Challenge

The interactive video installation “Moment of Memory” (“Erinnerungsmoment”) deals with various memories that often exist only as small fragments that cannot be pieced back together into a recognisable context. The work conveys the way we treat these memories: Some we wish to forget, while others we would like to relive again, or in a different way. The installation makes use of old (from 1970 to 1990) as well as new films produced in Super 8 style. Such as the unsorted fragmentary pieces of our memory, these private movie clips are not shown in chronological but rather in associated order. The spectator can manipulate the images with the help of a flashlight and thus experience the moving pictures as if they were in a dream. This unique form of interaction is enabled through a program using a combination of Processing and OpenCV, which recognises and processes the light that is projected onto the screen with the help of a webcam. The program receives the current coordinates of the spotlight in the webcam image. At these coordinates different processing functions are applied to the video pixels. Using this interface, the spectator can play with different aesthetics and combine these individually. A new feature of the interactive video installation is a video uploading page giving the user the possibility to share old videos and to interact with his/her own memories at an exhibition. Franziska Tachtler developed this work inspired by personal Super 8 films of her family, and she is exhilarated by the easiness of interactive video installations. The work is very technical; nevertheless, it carries feelings. Each time the work has been presented, the artist got very positive and personal feedback of the users.