David Rokeby : Reflexions

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Interactive Installations : Reflexions (1982-4)

Caro Coltman interacting with Reflexions at ArtCulture Resource Center (1983)

Reflexions was my first interactive sound installation. I constructed some very bulky 8 x 8 pixel video cameras (the large black box over the monitor in the image), connected then to a wire-wrapped card in the Apple ][ which digitized the images, and wrote a program in 6502 assembly code for the Apple ][ which controlled a Korg MS-20 Analog synthesizer to make sounds in response to the movements seen by the cameras. Movement also controlled the volume of two tape loops of water sounds. The synthesizer and water sounds were mixed individually to 4 speakers in a tetrahedron (one on the ceiling and three in a triangle on the floor. The sounds would move around you in addition to responding to your movement.

Reflexions always had a visual component. In the first version (1983) I had a second Apple ][ generating abstract textures and patterns in relation to movement. In 1984, I generated, again on an Apple ][, images of tetrahedra that rotated and flexed in response to your position in the space. I would present the video images on three monitors underneath the cameras. These images had the unwanted effect of making people very passive in the space. This seemed to be a common response to video screens before the age of ubiquitous video games and personal computers. (Next)

History

1983
Open House, Ontario College of Art, Toronto, Canada.
"Digicon '83" Robson Square Media Centre, Vancouver, Canada.
ArtCulture Resource Center, Toronto, Canada.

1984
Open House, Ontario College of Art, Toronto, Canada.
MacKenzie Gallery, Trent University, Peterborough, Canada.
performance with Gerald Berg, Toronto International Festival, Harbourfront, Toronto, Canada

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