Description
"Make Out" is the eight piece in the Shadow Box series of interactive displays with a built-in computerized tracking system. This piece shows thousands of internet videos of couples looking at each other: as soon as someone stands in front of the display his or her silhouette is shown and all the couples within it begin to kiss. The massive array of make-out sessions continues for as long as someone is in front of the work, --as he or she moves away all the kissing ends.

The collector can choose what proportion of the videos are man-woman, woman-woman or man-man. The default state is the statistically faithful proportion of the videos that are online: 50 per cent woman-woman, 30 per cent man-man and 20 per cent man-woman. Periodically, the display shows all videos in the database simultaneously.

The piece exists also as a large projection or as an installation with plasma screens. In these, the detected presence of passers-by triggers a wave of kissing in huge arrays of up to 8,000 simultaneous video clips.

Year of creation
2009
Technique
High resolution interactive display with built-in computerized surveillance system.
Dimensions
104.5 x 80 x 12 cm
Manual

Exhibitions
• ARCO Expanded Box, Haunch of Venison Gallery, Madrid 2010 (plasma version)
• "Decode, degital design sensations" (curators: Louise Shannon, Ligaya Salazar), Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2009 (plasma version)
• "Transition States" Haunch of Venison Gallery NYC, 2009 (plasma version)
• Elton John Foundation, Windsor, 2009 (plasma version)
• Mutek Festival, red light district, Montreal 2009 (projection version)
• Armory show, OMR Gallery, NYC 2009
• ARCO, Haunch of Venison Gallery, Madrid 2009
• "Un Mundo Feliz" (curator: Rewell Altunaga), Bienal de La Habana, Cuba 2009

Photos
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Conroy Badger - programming

Stephan Schulz, David Lemieux, Natalie Bouchard, Olfa Driss, Nicolas Martel, Jonathan Yu - production support