Annica Cuppetelli and Cristobal Mendoza

Threaded Interface, April 2012 (A Part of Fiber Philadelphia)

Video meets material in the collaborative installations of Detroit-based artists Annica Cuppetelli and Cristobal Mendoza.  This April 2012, Grizzly Grizzly is pleased to present their latest work, “Threaded Interface,” an immersive, interactive installation that combines reactive video projections with physical structures.  This innovative exhibition is part of the city-wide Fiber Philadelphia 2012 series.

“Threaded Interface” will fill the entire gallery with fields of vertical and parallel lines made of elastic cord and illuminated with a video projection generated through a custom software program. The motion of the projected lines is ruled by a simulation that makes them act like soft ropes.  The direction and strength of their movement is affected by the viewer’s motion as registered by a video camera that feeds its image to the computer. Thus, the physical movements of the audience are translated into virtual forces that affect the computer-generated lines, while the physical lines of the installation remain motionless.

Interface–the point of contact between entities–is revealed in multiple ways: between the viewer and the piece (a human/computer interface); between the real and the virtual (the physical structure and its relationship with the projected structure); between the foreground and the background (as the projection interferes with its shadow).