How People in NYC Stare at Computer Screens
Ever thought about how people stare at computer screens? Kyle McDonald has.
And that’s how his personal project and photographic intervention, People Staring At Computers, started.
“An experiment to observe the way people stare at computers, and for people to see themselves staring at computers,” the Brooklyn-based media artist said about his project. “Maybe then would they stare at computers differently?”
A simple custom app that automatically takes a picture every minute was installed all around New York City. When the app detects a face in the image, it would upload it to his server.
In three days, McDonald collected thousands of photos and exhibited them where they were first captured.
He then wrote another app “that could be remotely triggered after being installed on all computers in one location”, the artist said.
When the app starts up, it takes a picture and slowly appears as a full-screen photo; then it cycles through older pictures.
However, the reaction of most is to hit the “Escape” key.
“Most people instinctively quit the app less than 10 seconds after recognizing their own face,” McDonald said. “So the exhibition was relegated to the unused machines.”
[via F.A.T.]
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