Good morning!
Sheena here.

Believe it or not…
at 31, I exhibited my work for the very first time!

The Event

The event I exhibited at was SICF26.

It's an art festival dedicated to discovering, nurturing, and supporting emerging artists.

I applied with zero track record, and to my surprise, I was accepted!
*Thank you for letting some unknown nobody through!!

About the Work

In this work, countless mirrors each move independently in real time.
When a viewer stands in front of the piece, it detects their face, and the mirrors gradually change their angles, reacting as if they were "looking at you."
Every mirror is controlled separately, so each one reflects "you" from a different point of view.

In the center, there is also a single distorted mirror that does not move.
It symbolizes "an image of yourself that no one reflects," or perhaps the "true self" distorted by the gaze of others.

Through the experience of being seen from many fragmented viewpoints,
viewers confront questions like "Who am I?" and "How does the self others see differ from the self I see?"

[Title and Concept]

Title:
Countless Images, a Buried Vessel
Concept:
Though we each have a single body,
we are constantly shaped by the different "images of me" held by each person around us.
Parents, siblings, friends, acquaintances:
the "me" each of them sees is different,
and those images pile up regardless of my own will.
As they accumulate, a single "me" is eventually constructed.
In this work, many mirrors are arranged,
and their angles change in response to the viewer's presence and movement, so the reflected images shift from moment to moment.
This shows that the "images of me" held by others exist in as many forms as there are viewpoints,
and never settle into one.
The collection of mirrors is composed as a "vessel" symbolizing personal identity.
The vessel cannot choose its own image.
Countless images from others simply flow in, overlap, and bury it.
And before you know it, that becomes "me" itself.
This work asks
how much of the "self-image" we hold is truly our own,
and where it becomes an accumulation of others' gazes:
it questions that boundary.

Below is the concept image I made for the application.

Making My First Artwork

Concept

First, I had to decide what to make.

That said, a lofty concept doesn't just come to you right away, so I started from things that would excite me to make and to see.

What survived in the end was this mirror piece.

Programming

I wanted it to run in real time, so I built it mainly with TouchDesigner, which I had used before, and made my microcontroller debut (Arduino) to control the mirror angles!

With help from ChatGPT, this part went smoothly!

Building the Prototype

To control the mirror angles, I built a prototype with TouchDesigner, a microcontroller, and two motors.

Almost everything was new to me, but with ChatGPT's help I somehow finished it!!!

Building the Final Piece

"Here we go!!" I thought, but…
then I hit the brakes.

The original plan was to detect people in real time and have 50 separate mirrors rotate on two axes, pan and tilt, to face the visitor.
But there were lots of concerns, like the load on the motors controlling the mirror angles and the preparation needed to control 50 mirrors at once. At this rate, I wouldn't make it in time for the exhibition!!

I had no choice but to scale down. In the end, I arranged 13 mirrors in a radial pattern and had them rotate on only one axis, which reduced the load on the microcontroller and motors enough to make it work.

I was able to finish the piece thanks to advice from many people.
Thank you all so much!!!!

And with that, all that was left was to get to work!!!

Building the program in TouchDesigner,

designing attachments to connect the motors and mirrors,

printing the attachments,

and running operation tests right before the final day!

Exhibition Day

And so I made it to the day, safely(?)!!!

During the exhibition, I got to talk with so many people!
*One of the great things about SICF is how close artists and visitors can get.

Talking with visitors was wonderful, since I heard impressions of the work from all kinds of perspectives.
I also got to talk a lot with the other exhibiting artists, and I learned so much!!
*I was especially blown away by how they displayed their work. It was just too beautiful.

Below is the atmosphere on exhibition day.
Source: SICF26

Reflections

Making my first artwork felt long but was over in a flash…

I'm so glad I made it!
I'm so glad I got to exhibit it!!

Getting involved with things and people I normally never get to encounter was just so much fun.

I hope to use this as my first step as an artist!

I expect to have more chances to take part in various exhibitions from here on, so I hope you'll keep an eye out.

See you next time!

Real-Time Face Tracking with Automatic Mirror Angle Control