Hofmanns Dream

Experiments / EXP-01

EXP-01 · Status: in preparation

Plain Wall

Your brain already does this. We just show it.

Abstract

Look at a plain wall long enough and you start to see patterns in it. Plain Wall is an experiment in perception built on that. A living pattern appears on a wall or a screen and answers you: where you look is where it gathers, and your breath makes it swell. Then it fades, and you keep looking.

1Set-up

your deviceCamerawhere you lookMicrophonein and out breathIn the browsernothing storedThe wallgaze: where it gathersbreath: how it swells
Fig. 1. Inputs and output. Gaze is the cursor, breath is the dial. Camera and microphone are read on your device only.
Table 1. Protocol at a glance.
You needA plain wall or a screen, a camera, a microphone
Responds toWhere you look; how you breathe in and out
Your dataRead on your device, never uploaded or stored
ControlA clear on and off; the exit is always on screen
TogetherPlanned: one screen, each person's gaze in its own colour

2Procedure

  1. Face a plain wall or a screen. Allow the camera and the microphone.
  2. A living pattern appears. Look somewhere, and it gathers there.
  3. Breathe out slowly, and it swells.
  4. The pattern fades, softly, to a faint shadow, and then to the empty wall.
  5. Keep looking.

Switch it off, and the wall is just a wall again.

3Status

The first prototype answers breath only. Gaze follows. When it is ready to try, it opens on this page.