This research project is centered on the development of several prototypes, culminating in at least one final live projection and AR apparatus for public installation.

The origins of this work are in several earlier projects, the most direct being Giants, from 2019 – a 15’ tall mobile “head” that could place a visitor’s face in colossus-scale in the landscape when they stand behind it. Briefly put, the idea of that interactive piece was to put the Selfie in the same cultural continuum as other forms of public portraiture throughout history and across cultures. Placed in pastoral and urban settings, these sculptures activated environments with the same mixture of empathy, vanity, and hero worship as social media does so prolifically in its global broadcast of countless portraits.

The operational diagram of this work may be relatively direct and even simple, but as work that is sited and interacted with in public spaces, the complexity and surprise come from people’s embodied, spatial, and lived encounters with the structures. This new edition of work expands the previous premise in two key areas: the use of live augmentation of the face with dynamically determined assets, and the experimentation with different physical configurations of the constructed form.

The plan is to install the resulting piece at a major cultural venue (several conversations currently happening). Additionally, I am hoping to incorporate the project in at least one public performance.