Rokeby’s Transforming Mirrors
Gabriella Hall
The Multimedia Century
17 November, 2021
Rokeby’s Transforming Mirrors
In Rokeby’s paper, Transforming Mirrors: Subjectivity and Control in Interactive Media, Rokeby seeks to explore the implications of interactive media. There is a strong focus on the medium of the work as the message. He explores the idea of mirrors by describing technologies as interactive and reflective he described technology as being interactive and reflective. He says,
“It follows that interactive technology is a medium through which we can communicate
with ourselves- a mirror. The medium not only reflects back. But also refracts what is
given; what is returned to ourselves, transformed and processed.”
We use technology to communicate with ourselves as we do with a mirror, thus begins the metaphor of technology as a mirror. These mirrors don’t just reflect back an objective image but are shifted by our perceptions to refract what is returned to us. This technology he refers to is not limited to a modern-day conception of technology, but it expands to include the technologies developed and used as mediums for interactive art.
Rokeby also brings focus to the concept of “transforming mirrors”. In these “transforming mirrors” the concept of the mirror is explicitly invoked. The concept of the mirror is not only invoked but transformed to use the viewer to complete the piece. Some of the clearest examples he highlights are video installments that use the spectator’s image or silhouette as an active force in the context of the work. In these works, the spectator’s image transforms or recontextualizes the reflection.
One example of these video installments is Myron Krueger’s Videoplace. Videoplace was an artificial reality laboratory developed by Krueger at the University of Connecticut in the mid-1970s. His idea for Videoplace was the creation of an artificial reality that surrounded users responding to their movements and actions. The installation was mainly done with projectors and had a major emphasis on the participant’s movements and shadows. There was a clear role for the participant whose movements were reflected onto the piece and transformed how the piece was to be perceived. The concept of mirrors was explicitly invoked through the participant’s shadows and transformed to use the viewers to complete the piece.
A more modern example of “transforming mirrors” can be seen in Yayoi Kusama’s Aftermath of Obliteration of Eternity. Aftermath of Obliteration of Eternity is a mirror installation piece from 2009 that relies on repetition to immerse the views into their environment. It consisted of a room of mirrors and lantern-like lights which, according to Kusama, explores the idea that we “keep flashing, disappearing and again blossoming out in this eternity”. In this piece, the viewers can immerse themselves in Kusama’s idea of obliteration and they themselves are seen as immersed through the mirrors. The viewers become part of the piece. Their reflections become a part of the work through the medium and they are transformed into Kusama’s idea of obliteration.
Sources
7 Most Spectacular ‘Mirror Room’ Installations by Yayoi Kusama in My Modern Met
https://mymodernmet.com/yayoi-kusama-mirror-room-installations/
Critical Issues in Electronic Media edited by Simon Petty
Videoplace Wikipedia Page
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videoplace
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