Cross the threshold

technical description

visual-kinetic interactive electronic installation

Technical Attributes

- A computer with a monitor of 15 inches or larger.

- An image viewer like ACDSee or any other type that does not smooth out the pixelation of the image as it enlarges.

- Of all the keyboard buttons, only four are available to the viewer: cursor movement up and down, left and right. Access to all other buttons is blocked in one way or another.

Action

The essence of the work consists in the interaction of the viewer with a certain image presented on the monitor in an enlarged form. The original picture - a digital photograph of the threshold of the house where Adolf Hitler was born - is not available to the viewer (Fig. 1).

He can only guess about its appearance, relying on the appropriate description. What is certain is that the photograph shows the line of the threshold itself, on one side of which is the adjacent space of the sidewalk, on the other - a fragment of the front floor. The viewer does not know where exactly the threshold line is located in the field of the original picture, and how - horizontally or vertically - it is oriented.

This image is previously (before the audience appears) opened by a viewer installed on the computer and enlarged to the very limit, when the picture is already a set of multi-colored monochromatic elementary squares with a side of about one and a half centimeters. This is exactly what the viewer sees on the screen (Fig. 2).

Moreover, it is unknown in which part of the original image it is located, and its location is unpredictable. Using the cursor control buttons (Fig. 3), the viewer can move around the picture in all four directions,

while observing the running of multi-colored squares on the screen - a change in the elementary color palette (photo 4-9). At some point the viewer may cross the threshold.

Instructions for the viewer

1. In front of you is an enlarged fragment of a photograph of the threshold of the house where Adolf Hitler was born.

2. The original photo shows the line of the threshold itself, on one side of which is the adjacent space of the sidewalk, on the other - a fragment of the front floor.

3. Your actual starting position is unpredictable and unknown, i.e. Initially, you can be on one or the other side of the threshold. There are no signs that definitely indicate your true location.

4. Using the cursor buttons, you can move around the original picture. These are the only actions available to you.

5. At some point you may cross the threshold.

Igor Savchenko

Braunau-Graz-Minsk, February 2011-January 2012