Apostasis

An interactive installation featuring five hanging powerful robotic searchlights that create static columns of light in a dark room. These are very bright vectors that point down into and illuminate small areas around 1 metre in diameter. When someone tries to walk into a light beam, a computer automatically moves the searchlight so that the beam is pointed somewhere else on the room. A video tracking system observes the room and makes sure that the lights are always illuminating empty spaces where there is no one. People may continually attempt to enter the spotlight but the system will adapt to ensure this can never be achieved. In the unlikely event that the room is completely crowded with people and there is no empty space for the beams to go, the lights turn off until they find a vacant spot.

The piece is intended as a quiet environment where "shy" lights refuse to illuminate anybody, foregoing their normal role as promotional or police tools. The piece hopes to evoke the escaping aura of public space in the age of reality TV, computerized surveillance, border patrols and tired metaphors about enlightment.