Erin Single
Media artist, designer, educator
Project 07
Bleached
Interactive installation with Processing.js
Year: 2019
Bleached
One color monitor, Kinect sensor, laptop, digital image file (color), Processing.js
Dimensions variable
Coral is an organism constantly in a state of growth and destruction,
and this process is entangled in human political, economic, cultural,
and social systems. The core idea for this specific piece is to generate
empathy for the coral by using motion capture technology to impact an
image of bleached coral shown on a screen. As viewers move throughout
the space, the image of the coral changes colors and glitches based on
movement captured in the space, bleaching the coral reef on the screen.
The Kinect sensor was hidden in the installation so that changes on
screen could not be linked to singular movements, but rather appeared as
part of a system. This work considers ideas such as the Anthropocene
and multispecies ethnography to address the environmental crisis facing
coral reefs. It was created with a 70” television monitor, Kinect
sensor, my laptop, and an original sketch in the Processing environment.
I interviewed Dr. Donald Potts, a biologist at the UCSC Coastal Science
campus, to gather information about coral bleaching for this project.