Ghosts-in-the-Machine

phytoplankton seen through a microscope.
A creature that drifts across the window on a submersible deep under the ocean.
Except that this creature is artificial, a digital construct. An intricate skeletal structure that is the result of the gradual structuring of 165 individual manually placed layers of video. Charting a journey of artificial evolution, ‘Ghosts in the Machine’ explores the generative possibilities of video feedback, the optical equivalent of acoustic feedback, which occurs when a loop exists between a video camera and a television screen or monitor. In other words, when a camera (connected to the TV) is pointed at the TV it faces an infinite number of reflections of itself, like two mirrors facing each other. The image is doubled and the image interferes with itself. With patience and certain amount of trial and error it becomes possible to explore a vast arena of spontaneous pattern generation by varying the available controls (brightness, contrast, hue, focus, camera angle etc).

Ghosts-in-the-machine (excerpt) | video duration 6 mins | 2006