This instal­la­tion explores the rela­tion­ship between us and our dig­i­tal other, encour­ag­ing a play­ful inter­ac­tion with one’s abstracted sil­hou­ette. It is part game, part behav­ioral study.

An ordi­nary web­cam films the par­tic­i­pant in front of a neu­tral back­ground, enabling the soft­ware to inter­act with the player’s sil­hou­ette in a vir­tual envi­ron­ment gov­erned by a set of rules such as vir­tual physics. The player can then manip­u­late the envi­ron­ment, pick up vir­tual objects and col­lab­o­rate with oth­ers to achieve goals.

Shady encoun­ters was part of the shadowlab exhibition shown at KISD, Cologne and Bilgi Uni­ver­sity, Instanbul in 2010.

Music: Sycamore Drive / Deep Thought Process