- Exhibition program
- Cycle: "Singular Electrics"
- Author
- Seiko Mikami
- Dates
- —
- Curated by
- Jorge Luis Marzo, Rosa Sánchez i Tere Badia
Molecular Informatics by the Japanese artist Seiko Mikami is an interactive installation incorporating optical recognition technology. The installation allows molecular structures to be generated simultaneously and projected on to the walls of the Espai 13 tracking the movements of the viewer’s eye.
Seiko Mikami (Tokyo, 1961) lives and works in New York. This latest work of hers, Molecular Informatics, has already been shown in Tokyo, Rotterdam and Créteil. The artist is particularly concerned with the distance between the object and the viewer: "I’m not interested in the physical objects produced by my work, despite the fact that I am impressed by real objects and by painting, but in materialising the invisible space that arises between the body and the object."
Human beings do not consciously control their eye movements. These movements play a decisive role in the creation of Molecular Informatics, since they are the intercommunication between the viewer and the projected images; the interface or mediation between things and actions in real time. Perception, however, is not only a privilege of the user; in fact, the whole audience participates in it. Even though the user tries to fix his gaze on a specific point, the unconscious eye movements will continue working to create the piece.
Seiko Mikami has previously used the body, or part of the body, as the interface between object and viewer on other occasions (World Membrane and the Dismembered Body).
Beyond its visual expression, this work tries to demonstrate that looking is not only an intentional act. It is also, in the passive sense, affected by internal and external circumstances.
Molecular Informatics has been produced with the collaboration of ARTLAB Canon Inc. ARTLAB is a laboratory aimed at backing artistic works that promote the integration of science and art through the application of digital technologies developed by Canon Inc.
