Ether – liquid mirror

The audio data of the viewer’s heartbeat is sent to a mirror, vibrating the mirror surface to produce heartbeat sounds. The slow tempo gradually increases and eventually synchronizes with a running water sound. The mirror and feedback from the viewer are reset every 20 minutes, and the program repeats sedation and arousal. The mirror makes us aware of our own “life”—something we are hardly conscious of in our everyday lives. This work probably offers an opportunity to substantiate anew our various senses in modern society, which is changing dramatically due to the coronavirus pandemic. The overall motif of the work is “womb.” It is a blessing to the artist’s first child, and directed toward the future.

The stainless steel mirror surface vibrates in sync with the viewer’s heartbeat. The viewer finds themselves distorted in the mirror depending on their state of mind / heart. It reminds me of the Magic Mirror in Snow White. The surface also functions as a speaker by vibrating with feedback. I highly respect that this interactive mirror is a tangible object, instead of software. Life descends into the real world only when there is a substance that mediates information after all. Even though it appears to be a quiet and meditative work, it also reflects the problems of media art, which tends to rely on software such as deep learning. (IKEGAMI Takashi)