An Artist's Perspective on Interactive Surfaces and Spaces

In her talk, Utterback will use examples of her own ground-breaking computer vision based artwork along with other art historical and contemporary examples to explore interaction design from a creative and sometimes radical perspective. While we often think our current technological innovations are completely new, a deeper look to the past provides intriguing visions, alternate possibilities, and provocations for the present. For example, many artists in the 1960's created projections onto multiple layers of glass or other transparent surfaces, including moving and sculptural surfaces. A closer look at these works reveals new possibilities for current work, which may also now be more feasible due to technological progress. Along with introducing inspiring examples from the past, Utterback will outline her current research into transparent, shaped and moving surfaces for interactive projections. Her current projects include multi-sided interactive installations using sets of scrims, fabric, LCD and OLED surfaces, and projections into custom formed glass -- both multi-layered glass surfaces, and hand blown or cast glass. At Stanford, Utterback recently taught two quarters of a course titled "Sculptural Screens" and will also share some of her students' innovative projects. An important element of Utterback's artistic research is questioning how technology can be designed to either ignore or enhance our embodied selves. She will highlight this aspect of her work along with lessons she has learned in her near 20 years working as a professional artist at the intersection of art and technology.