“La Gabbia” (The Cage) by auroraMeccanica (2011) is an installation that uses projection to invite the public to interact with physical bird cage to trigger the release of projected birds. At the center of a darkened room, a birdcage hanging from the ceiling it’s lit only by the white beam of the projector and its on the wall. Uncover the bird’s presence through playing a game, a very simple game in which we just have to push the cage and shake it.
Our intuition and prior experiences, suddenly lead us into the a sort of awareness. The cage reminds of it’s physical presence as well, but the space inside it’s empty. Our transposed image, identified in our shadow, creates a connection with the oneiric part of our being; the cage becomes the portal to access the world of untangible projections and spiritual knowledge. Our image becomes the reflex of our shadows. The audience are made free to play with this untangible spirit and their immaterial shadows, and is only through physical actions and participation that they can link the two dimensions, the tangible and the untangible, disclosing the bird’s shadow, making them finally free to fly out of the cage. The ideas and thoughts raised by the viewer, fly out of the cage and translates into the shadow of a bird flying towards the newly acquired freedom.
Hardware includes one projector, a physical cage, iMac Core 2 Duo and Nintendo Wii Controller. Created using Processing (gifAnimation & oscP5 library).
See also Karolina Sobecka’s wonderful Bird Play.
