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Memory Mirror @ Phoenix Square

Mon, 04 Jul 2011 – Sun, 31 Jul 2011
Phoenix Square, Midland Street, Leicester, LE1 1TG

Memory Mirror is an interactive installation by DMU Art and Design PhD Student (and Director of local multimedia company Cuttlefish) Sean Clark. The exhibition provides an opportunity to preview the new artwork prior to a larger exhibition of Sean’s recent work that will be taking place at the Fabrika Independent Art Centre in Leicester in the autumn.

Memory Mirror takes the form of two large screens, arranged vertically next to each other with a small video camera fixed in-between. The screens initially appear to be blank, but when a viewer approaches they start to show an image of the viewer, behaving like a mirror.

As the viewer moves and explores the behaviour of their reflected image they discover that their movements trigger the playback of video images of previous visitors to the artwork. Once the viewer stops interacting with the artwork the images fade away and the screens return to being blank.

Sean Clark conceived of Memory Mirror as an ‘interactive art system'. It could be said that the artwork begins as an empty vessel that becomes filled through the process of interaction. Indeed, without a viewer to interact with it the artwork is incomplete, remaining empty. What's more, the exact nature of how the artwork grows over time depends on who interacts with it and for how long. No two installations of the artwork will result in the same set of video images being displayed and any two people's experience of it will never be quite the same.

Like a living system, the Memory Mirror’s potential for growth and development can only be realised if it is able to interact with its environment. Without such interaction it will remain empty and ‘lifeless'. Indeed, If nobody was to visit the exhibition the artwork would literally remain a blank screen alone in a room.

It is hoped that the artwork will encourage you to think about the nature of interactivity in art, the boundaries between personal and public space and, finally, how we all change the world around us simply by being part of it.

Please note that your video image will be captured by Memory Mirror as you interact with it. Any such video images may be seen by future visitors this exhibition, but will not be retained once the exhibition has finished. Some video stills may be retained for documentation purposes.

Photographs Taken At The Exhibition