“Surveil ” consists of one large (~5” sq. ft) sculpture of part of a face and an eyeball. Onto this (CNC + Styrofoam) sculpture we will project animations for the eyeball and use motion tracking (Unreal Engine + Kinect) to animate the ball following you. The symbolic face and eye that tracks the audience’s movements is a representation of the big data collection happening daily around the globe by nations and large corporations. The content of the projection will contain a data visualization that makes it seem like it is collecting data on the audience. In addition to the sculpture and the pedestals, we will have a live microphone processing sound in real-time. The live sound input will be delayed and obfuscated to present a familiar echo of what is happening in the room. The installation is set to create and feeling of surveillance reflecting how social media and other online activities has been used to record personal data from us users.

The sculpture aspect of the project has been completed and tested. So far the installation has been hung and been projected on for ICAT day. A short looping animation projected onto the sculpture as a stand-in for the motion tracking. The animation gave the attending audience an idea of how the installation looks and feel within the space. The installation also had looping audio that evokes a sense of surveillance, engineered by Tanner. The audience was immediately perceived as their voice was being recorded and played back. Due to the time constraint, Surveil is not complete yet with the motion tracking and live audio recording still in works. We hope to complete these two aspects of Surveil before the end of summer for a full experience.

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