Stefano Coluccini

Coluccini creates netart projects
where there is a two-way interaction
between the observer and an image 
via a computer-aided communication mechanism
based on gaze-tracking.



images from netart project "Pixel-Action"



images from netart project "Hot Zones"



images from netart project "WYSIWYL"

Commonly we think of the image observation process as a substantially passive activity, however the eyes and brain carry out a real work of analysis, with the eye performing a continuos scanning often dwelling frequently upon the details regarded as more interesting by the brain (Noton - Stark*). During this process we don't perceive any real change in what we are observing; but a growing quantity of information is stored as time goes by: the image remains physically the same, but its representation in our brain changes.

Tracks of eye movement recorded during the observation
of an image of queen Nefertiti.  -Alfred Yarbus*

This observation mechanism provides for an active subject (the observer) and for a completely passive one (the image), yet we can think, thanks to the recent advance of technology, of making both subjects active by establishing between them a communication protocol based on the capability of the image to react to the observer's gaze.

The works presented here are examples of interaction between the observer and a image with a computer-aided communication mechanism based on gaze-tracking. In theory there are no limits either to the ways of interpreting the observer's gaze or to the consequent changes that the image can undergo: we can therefore add to the static image a further dimension consisting of the variability as a function of the behaviour of the observer.

*Noton - Stark - D. Noton and L. Stark, "Eye Movements and Visual Perception", Scientific Am., vol. 224, pp. 34-43, 1971.

*Alfred Yarbus - A. L. Yarbus, "Eye Movements and Vision", Plenum, New York, 1967.

Stefano Coluccini
info@stefanocoluccini.net
http://www.stefanocoluccini.net

All texts and images by Stefano Coluccini © 2006 S. Coluccini.