Responsive Installation: computer, video camera, custom software, lasercut soybean field
Subterfuge consists of an abstracted field of lasercut soybean plant shapes
in the trifoliate stage of their development. The canopy of soybean leaves
forms a projection screen for kinetic camouflage patterns updating in realtime
in response to the changing environment surrounding the installation.
Traditionally, camouflage patterns - derived and abstracted from nature -
are used to camouflage humans and human-made structures. In this work they
are used conceptually: the computer system that creates and colors the
camouflage patterns attempts to make the soybean field - a representation
of engineered nature - blend with its surrounding environment. In doing so
however, the computer system turns the field into a strange hybrid, caught
somewhere between a representation of an agricultural field and architectural
structure and a military artifact.
The installation was inspired by a 2011 article in the Huffington Post1) that
reported on U.N. plans to supplement their troops of Blue Helmets with a
special unit of Green Helmets. Green would signify their special assignment
to ensure food security and agricultural resources – an issue the U.N.
takes as a very serious threat to peace in the face of the effects of
climate change and a growing world population. Imagine your soybean field
is a resource worth killing for - how might you try to hide it? Exhibition
visitors can experiment with the computer vision program in the gallery,
stepping in front of a camera that picks up colors from their clothing and
turns them into camouflage patterns.
1) Kelly, Tara. "U.N. Green Helmets: Ban Ki-Moon Considers Peacekeeping
For Global Warming." Huffington Post, July 20, 2011.
