Kreuzfeuer
Der Schwerpunkt der Praxiskommission für Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft lag auf der Untersuchung der immateriellen Eigenschaften des gesprochenen Wortes und der Untersuchung der unsichtbaren Auswirkungen von Schall auf die bewohnte Umgebung. Das Projekt konzentriert sich auf den Kontext eines häuslichen Arguments. In diesem Fall zeigt die Veranstaltung einen Audioauszug aus dem Sam Mendes-Film “American Beauty“ von 1999. Der langsame Dialog zwischen den drei Hauptfiguren des Familienessens gipfelt in einem lauten Aufeinandertreffen von Emotionen. Das Kreuzfeuer des Arguments durchquert den Esstisch, aber wo zuvor die leblosen Alltagsgegenstände wie Teller, Besteck, Teekanne usw. ihren Charakter nicht ausdrücken konnten, verformt die Intensität des Gesprächs ihre einst statische Existenz in Gegenstände unsichtbarer Vertrautheit Die präsentierten Klangartefakte enthalten jeweils eine momentane Emotion des Arguments.

Cross-fire cutlery detail
The focus of the Past, Present & Future Craft practice commission was to examine the intangible characteristic of the spoken word and investigate the unseen affect of sound upon its inhabited environment.The project centralizes around the context of a domestic argument. In this case the event samples an audio excerpt from the 1999 Sam Mendes Film ‘American Beauty’. The slow building dialogue between the three central characters family dinner climaxes with a sound clash of emotions. The cross-fire of the argument traverses the dinning table but where previously the inanimate everyday objects such as plates, cutlery, teapot etc were unable to express their character, the intensity of the conversation deforms their once static existence into objects of unseen familiarity.The presented sound artifacts each encapsulate a momentary emotion of the argument.

The willful marionette
the willful marionette (2014) was created by artists Lilla LoCurto and Bill Outcault during a residency with the University of North Carolina Charlotte, working with the College of Computing and Informatics as well as the College of Art and Architecture. The marionette is 3d printed from the scanned image of a human figure and responds engagingly in real time to spontaneous human gestures by reading a viewer’s movements and expressions. Its strings are manipulated by motors and software and there are two depth sensors that read and analyze the behaviors and gestures of participants. The puppet’s subsequent actions are designed to elicit further responses, creating an exchange focusing on the frailty and insecurities of the human participant and raising issues of contemporary relevance. The intention of the project was not to create so much a perfectly functioning robot but rather to imbue an obviously mechanically actuated marionette with the ability to solicit a physical and emotional dialog with a viewer.