Golden Calf
1999
Computer installation
C3 production
Aranyborjú
1999
kompjúter-installáció
C3 produkció
'The complex
technical structure of the piece remains almost
perfectly hidden from the eyes of the viewer - so
much so that a visitor with only a feeble
experimental sense might not even know of the
possibility of interference and interaction. The
exhibition space contains only a slide projector and
mirrored sphere familiar from dancehalls and discos;
everything else - the more serious technical
equipment - remains hidden in a pedestal.
In fact, however, the details of the projected image reflecting off the disco-ball into the entire space are
surveyed by a video camera whose digitized images are analyzed by a computer, and depending on the
changes, it lets out certain sounds and noises. The visitor is able to manipulate the environment through
his own shadow and by handling the mirrored ball and hence the projected image-details on the wall.
Due to the fact, however, that these sounds and noises are very faint, it is a rather time-consuming
activity for the viewer to determine how - or if - this piece is interactive at all. The image of the golden
calf, the golden sphere and the low sounds together create a sacred atmosphere in which it seems
obvious that any kind of interference would require true courage and even more attention for any
possibility of interactivity, in the possession of which the ability to discover the meaning of the piece
seems to be the ultimate and most simple endeavor.'
Zoltán Szegedy-Maszák
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