In A Blink

The purpose of this project is to artistically express that our perceptions of the visual world are interrupted due to the often overlooked blinking of our eyes. The project was guided by two questions: 1) How is blink rate related to thought and emotion? 2) How does the process of blinking provide context to our life experiences? To link these two concepts together, I constructed a creative editing device that uses a live video feed of the user's eye blinking to randomly launch pre-existing footage of the user's significant life events. The process of creating this project occurred in three distinct steps. In the first step, I recorded 30-second videos to be used as a demonstration when exhibiting the device. In the second step, I attached a camera to a head mount to output a real time video of my eye blinking. In the third step, I created a Max patch that used the video feed of my eye as a trigger to play my pre-recorded clips. The final result was an evocative non-linear narrative of past personal experiences, and the development of the narrative itself is similar to the way in which humans recall memories. The visuals of the blinking eye were placed adjacent to the pre-recorded footage in order to mimic the positioning of two eyes on a face; one side of the display shows my actual eye, and the other side signifies looking back on what my eye has seen. The intended effect was to generate an awareness of the breaks in our vision and how this influences our existence.