Angelo Mao – RMIT School of Art Graduates

Recipient of the NAVA Ignition Award.

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EKANS

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Inside the installation space, scripted spaces unfold, interacting and nesting with and inside each other. The body transforms into data; the data flows from our fingertip, through the camera, into the central processing unit. At this moment, we are all cyborgs.

EKANS consists of four parts—one standard gesture control snake game that will leave tracks recording every player’s moves, and a reversed SNAKE game—the player plays as the food and tries to kill the SNAKE using Tetris blocks. Along with these two works, there is a dot point live simulation and a pixelated simulation that displays luminosity values. These works attempt to complete this narration where the machines are now watching us.

Through programmatic creative intervention, memory and nostalgia can be tangibly mediated through the power of a scripted space. The idea of a scripted space is the nucleus of this artwork. Scripted space was constructed using computing, photography and semiotics. Computing script is the rule of the space, photography helps computing to localise its power, and semiotics helps audiences orient themselves within the place.

SNAKE is my demonstration of a scripted space. Most of the works were written in Python with OpenCV, a machine vision library that allows me to track audiences’ hand, face, and body movements through a webcam. The nostalgic graphics assist audiences in understanding what they are interacting with.

I have used technology to mediate human interactions from my social anxiety since childhood. Snakes is one of the first games I ever programmed and the first game I ever played; it is an entry point to my ADD mind. Although the SNAKE might be overwhelming and all over the place, it is the best epitome of me.

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