Zeugen

Wood, acrylic, RGB Leds, Displayduino Micro-controller, LEDMatrix Micro-controller, ServoMatrix Micro-controller, wires, LEGO®, servos, plastic casts, webcam, laptop, and various custom electronics and software
84" x 48" x 12"
2009-2010

Video: Zeugen v3 by Morgan Rauscher

Morgan Rauscher

Morgan Rauscher is an interactive and immersive media artist and educator specializing in creative electronic artworks. Morgan’s award winning artworks have been featured in gallery and museum shows across Canada, the United States and Europe. His research explorations involve the physic-cognitive and physiological human experiences bridging humans and machines. Morgan is currently a special individualized PhD student at Concordia University (Hexagram Institute), Montreal, QC. and received his Masters of Applied Media Arts in 2010 from Emily Carr University, Vancouver, BC.

I study the human symbiotic relationship with machines through immersive, embodied and interactive technologies. My interdisciplinary and holistic approach to understanding people and machines combines art with technology and I believe that together they have the potential to facilitate the rapid acquisition of new knowledge by uncovering new ways of sensing, interacting, expressing and learning. All of these goals are accomplished with a broad range of methodologies from numerous academic camps such as human cognition, ergonomics, materials science, industrial design, computer and electronic engineering, philosophy of perception and of course art. Thus, I develop interfaces that incorporate active gestural and tactile artworks using immersive media and interactive technology. I explore biofeedback, learned behavior, and recursive/responsive interactions between humans and computers with the lifelong goal of enhancing the human-computer interface. "Zeugen" is an example of my work consisting of thirty-two human-cast robotic faces and a face tracking system, which follows the movements of viewers in a gallery space. "Zeugen" provides a self-reflexive space where the viewer is seeing and being seen at the same time and thereby immersed in a state of self awareness through reflexivity.