ORIT ZUCKERMAN

Moving Portraits (2002-2007)

1. Moving Portraits #2 (2003) A still portrait is an effective medium to describe a persona, but it is limited in its ability to convey such richness. A Moving Portrait, utilizes interaction, dynamics, and memory attributes to portray a personality in a multi-faceted way, helping the viewer to understand the individual portrayed better, know more about a persona, and engage in a meaningful way. 
   By adding interaction, dynamics, and memory to a familiar portrait we create a different and more engaging relationship between the viewer and the portrait. The portrait ceases to be a passive object. It gains awareness and personalization that creates a unique viewing experience to different people in different ways.
   This portrait is of a very shy 3 year old who is particularly wary of strangers in big numbers.
   In the childs portrait, if you stand in front of the portrait, she will gradually come out of hiding and become happier the more you look. Alas, if you are not alone she will hide again. 

2. Influence (2005) is an interactive artwork visualizing how collective behavior emerges from decentralized interaction in a small social network. Individual people are affected by the behavior of people around them, and as a result, they influence the people around them as well.
   This interactive video piece presents 16 people as black and white moving portraits. Each portrait has a set of gestures, such as looking to the right, looking to the left, yawning, falling a sleep etc.
   Each portrait has a predefined threshold level for catching the yawn virus from a neighbor portrait. The first yawn starts a unique chain reaction of yawning, based on the predefined threshold levels and some randomness. 

3. Spotlight (2005) is an installation of 16 interactive portraits. Every few seconds, a randomly selected portrait is looking towards a neighboring portrait. In turn, the neighboring portrait will look back. The viewer can interrupt the group dynamics at any time, by selecting one of the 16 portraits. The remaining 15 portraits automatically react and direct their attention to the viewer-selected portrait, which reacts with a special gesture - "being the center of attention".

4. Portrait of Cati #2 (2006) reacts differently to a man or a woman viewer.