Mari Velonaki

pin cushion

Wires emanate from needles embedded in a woman's digital face which is projected onto a latex cushion hanging on a wall. By stroking and pulling the wires, spectators manipulate the face which evolves to their cumulative interactions. An audience's desires transfuse through wire to needle to face,as intimate, haptic relations form between spectator, artwork and technology.

Graphics & Programming: Gary Zebington
Sound: Shannon O'Neill

Mari Velonaki is a media artist with a performance background. She aims to engage spectators with digital characters in interplays activated by sensory triggered interfaces (breath activation, speech recognition, artificial vision systems). Her work has been shown at Artspace, The Performance Space, PICA, Sciencentre of Queensland, IMA, Ton and Bild Spectakel and Kunstalle Prisma

Prototype for a Universal Ideology

The spoken theory of each user becomes the raw material for a process analogous to the genetic recombination of DNA. The audio waveforms are broken down into fragments and rearranged with the phrases of other users. Users can breed different theories together and decide which new recombinant theories survive and consequently how they develop over time

John Tonkin is a Sydney based artist, who began programming and making computer animation in 1985. His current works involve building frameworks / tools / toys in which the artwork is formed through the accumulated interactions of its users. In 1999 Tonkin received a fellowship from the Australia Council's New Media Fund. He is currently working on Strange Weather: a grand unified theory, a visualisation tool for making sense of life.

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, it's arts funding and advisory body.