People/Portrait on the Fly artist talk & opening reception

November 22, 2024, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. TU Delft Library, Main Hall, Netherlands

Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau, Interface Cultures department, show their interactive installations “Portrait on the Fly” and “People on the Fly”.

Curator: Vincent Cellucci

Portrait on the Fly
The interactive installation consists of a monitor that shows a swarm of a few thousand flies. When a person positions himself in front of the monitor, the insects builds up the contour of the person. They begin to arrange and rearrange themselves continuously, thereby creating a recognizable likeness of the individual..
Posing in front of the monitor attracts the flies. Within seconds they invade the face, but even the slightest movement of the head or of parts of the face drives them off. The portraits are thus in constant flux, they construct and deconstruct. Portrait on the Fly is a commentary on our love for making pictures of ourselves (Selfie-Culture), it has to do with change, transience and impermanence.

People on the Fly
For a large scale screen we developed a participatory public artwork where passers-by can see themselves and also be turned into a swarm of flies. A specially developed software detects all moving persons and communicates their data to artificial programmed insects. When a person moves, within seconds hundreds of flies invade his or her body, but when he or she stands still, the insects fly away. The resulting image scenarios are in constant flux, they construct and deconstruct, and people become visible and disappear again within a swarm of insects.People on the Fly celebrates the ephemeral moment and the hustle and bustle of everyday life, where only standing still for a short moment makes one see one's own image clearly.

www.tudelft.nl/people-portrait-on-the-fly-artist-talk-opening-reception