Produced in spring 2022, il Circo delle Lumache (Snail Circus) is a whimsical celebration of gastropods and their amazing abilities. A miniature circus installation doubles as a multisensory micro-museum to watch and learn about snails.
The experience is a provocation for us to slow down and enter into the very different sensory space of snail time. Culturally, snails are often viewed through the lens of utility as everything from a garden nuisance to a culinary delicacy. But they are also living beings, indigenous to lands throughout present-day Italy, with whom we have co-existed for centuries. By repositioning them as the protagonists of an extravagant miniature world, the Snail Circus invites us to convene with these creatures for a few moments, simply as fellow inhabitants on this earth.
The Snail Circus is also the only current physical post office for Snail Mail. Write to the snail protagonists from anywhere in the world and we’ll read your letter to them! You can write to an individual snail or the whole troupe. Stop by the in-person Snail Mail post office if you’d like to pick up a snail-sized envelope and paper. Send your Snail Mail to:
ChromaKairos Snail Mail
Via Roberto Bellarmino, 13
20141 Milano, MI
Italy
Read more on the ChromaKairos project webpage (in English / in italiano). You can also see more videos of the snails on the ChromaKairos Instagram.
The images above and videos below depict the raw output of the liquid mirror technology, in various configurations. This creates a subtle flickering effect when output through LED grids but may also be projected directly as shown here for a more direct translational experience. For example:
- A single video channel mask on black background creates a literal light mirror or “light shadow” effect in dark environments.
- The use of a particle system within the masked area rather than a one-to-one mask generates the appearance of motion. It is appropriate for use even with still images as the mask or background or anywhere that a more subtle interaction is desired.
- By using one video for the mask and a different video for the background, interesting dynamic effects can be achieved. This might also take the form of two completely independent moving images, or alternatively a single source onto one copy of which slight post-processing effects have been applied (e.g. shifted brightness, hue).
Please note that the short video snippets below will loop upon playback.
Liquid mirror is a technology designed for interactive light installations. It acts as an abstracted “light mirror” that transforms the movements of passersby into flickering patterns of light. In a sense, it also mirrors the moods and emotions that encounter it, inviting playful interaction as equally as meditative reflection. The piece does not demand intentional interaction but rather reacts to its surroundings, generating surprise and delight among its often-unsuspecting viewers.
Both physically and conceptually these works evoke the comfort and reassurance of light. If we feel alone amidst the darkness of night, these pieces bear witness to our presence, illuminating us in their glow. There is a living quality to the subtleties of this light, accompanying us in however transient our passage through its shared space.
Liquid mirror technology was first exhibited in 2015 as the wall piece Weare, although it has since served as a technical backbone for several custom projects. It is scalable to many different sizes and resolutions and can be incorporated into wall-based or sculptural works.
View the video documentation of Weare below or on Vimeo.
You can also find a behind-the-scenes look at the direct output from the system through photos and video here. This can be projected directly for a less subtle “light shadow” effect.
Shekinah (2016) comprises a series of interactive biometric portraits, based on the unique variation of the human hand.
Capturing the negative space between an individual’s thumb and index fingers, each Shekinah represents the legacy of life itself: all that a person might do, touch, and create in his or her time on earth.
Whether thrown by celebrities and fans as the diamond or theorized as masonic symbol, this simple hand gesture is diffuse throughout society. The symbol has older origins as the Hebrew nesiat kapayim, a ritual element of the priestly blessing.
Breath Vessels (2015) gives visible creative power to the life-sustaining ritual of breath. Breath is a rhythmic interface between our own bodies and our environment. Our life depends on breathing, and it is the site of the physical exchange that binds us to people, plants, and other organisms in the spaces and atmosphere we share. Our biological and emotional life is also often embodied in our breath: a gasp of surprise, an exasperated sigh, a frail rasp, the audible sound of sudden understanding. These too are cycles of exchange through which we communicate with the environment around us.
The project departed from a curiosity. If our exhalations were only visible, what stories about us would they tell? Is there a pattern language to breath that would reveal features of our emotional terrains if only we could see them? I wondered if our breathing expresses a common temporality, here transformed into shape, depending on whether we are anxious or sad, excited or at peace.
In Hebrew the word רוח can be translated as breath, wind, or spirit, as can the Hindu prana, Greek pneuma, Chinese qui, and Mayan ik. The English word spirit comes from the Latin spiritus (“breath”). Yet we rarely think about our own breathing unless it is endangered.
In this interactive installation, a virtual 3D model is generated in realtime as one exhales into a handheld shell-like form. The strength and speed of the breath in each moment determines how wide the vessel is. These forms are then 3D printed or translated into ceramic through slipcasting or clay 3D printing. Each vessel transforms the ephemeral breath into a persistent record of a moment otherwise already lost to time, an archive of exhalation.