:: Since 1999, my research has focused on the development of video systems that translate body language and behavioral patterns while exploring the experiential issues related to the relationship between man and machine.  In other words, how individuals react to their environment, not only as a cultural construct but also as a lived interactive experience. My research has led me to develop a series of responsive video membranes that incorporate pneumatic and hydraulic technologies, and to explore how these industrial technologies can become tools or vehicles for poetic expression. Ergo art

The membrane’s construction consist of materials ranging from elastic polymers whose tensile strength is stretched to the limits to suspended polyethylene lattes that convulse, gyrate and waft fearlessly to rubberized tubing that plunges downward, ascends, retracts and expands. All are constructed around innovative structures, which stir these materials from a state of serene calmness to one of utter unrest. Each movement, each motion, each jolt, is regulated by sensors strategically placed on the membranes as well as within the confined spatial setting which acts as the spatial environment.

As the participants/viewers roam around the space, direct communication is triggered, oftentimes unexpectedly, as the video itself and the chain of action/reactions cause the responsive membrane to react. The resulting interplay between the character, the video’s membrane and the audience elicits numerous emotional responses that turn a robotic pneumatic controlled structure into a life force that confronts the frontiers of its own individuality.