Installation, 2010

Just Noticeable Difference is a sensory environment for one person at a time in which total darkness is accompanied by extraordinary small variations of sense stimuli. Barely detectable body motions are sensed and affect the patterns and intensity of a composition of touch, light and sound. The installation explores the fluctuation between noise and order, sensation and sense making directly at the level of bodily perception.

Please note: Just Noticeable Difference is intended for an individual experience and can only be accessed by one person at a time. Please book your visit at jnd@isea2010ruhr.org (until 19 August) or with the attendant next to the installation.

An installation by Christopher Salter in collaboration with Marije Baalman (nl) and Harry Smoak (qc/ca).

About the Artists

Chris Salter is an artist, Associate Professor for Computation Arts at Concordia University and researcher at the Hexagram Institute in Montreal. He collaborated with Peter Sellars and William Forsythe before co-founding the collective Sponge, whose works stretched between artistic production, theoretical reflection and scientific research. Salter’s performances, installations, research and publications have been presented at numerous festivals and conferences around the world. Recently he published the book Entangled: Technology and the Transformation of Performance (MIT Press, 2010).

Marije Baalman studied Applied Physics at the Technical University in Delft, Sonology at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and completed her PhD on Wave Field Synthesis and electro-acoustic music in 2007 at the Technical University of Berlin. Her research focuses on the use of wireless networks for live performance and installations.

Harry Smoak is a media researcher and producer based in Montreal, Canada. He is presently a doctoral candidate in Fine Arts, at Concordia University where he is also an adjunct faculty in the Department of Design and Computation Arts. His current research interests lie in phenomenology of lighting, networked sensor technologies, urban media ecologies, and technologies of performance.

ISEA2010 RUHR Exhibition
Fr 20–So 22 August 2010, 10:00–20:00h

PACT Zollverein, Essen Studio 2
Bullmannaue 20a
45327 Essen
Map Essen

Funded with support from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec.