I have been working with Manchester Science Partnerships to develop a range of workshops for their customers, the resident companies that use the park. The first session was the ‘mirror gaze experiment’. During the mirror gaze experiment [MGE] participants are asked to stare at their own reflection in a mirror in a nearly dark room….
Tag: mirror
Emergent Strange faces
A night vision camera captured video during the experiment from behind the mirror[see diagram here]. This used the program Isadora to detect movement using a ‘difference filter’ and building up an image using ‘shimmer’ and ‘motion blur’ filters with a long decay rate. An image builds up based on the collective movements of all 3…
Schematic for mirror gaze experiment
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Proximity day 1 experiment 1
Mirror gaze experiment
The mirror gaze experiment requires the participant to sit in a near dark room and to stare at their own reflection for a set amount of time while listing to white noise. After only a short amount of time most people experience powerful illusions of facial distortion, grossly exaggerated features, faces of animals, the face…
Ganzfeld and Mirror Gaze
1-1 experiment sessions in the studio I invited participants to come to my studio to take part in phase 2 of my research. This opens up to using the Ganzfeld and the Strange Face in the Mirror Illusion. Both use white noise connected to a system of biofeedback, using Galvanic skin response signals to subtly…
Mirror Gaze Box
A rapidly prototyped blackout box for the mirror gaze box, this is to create a dark space for the Mirror Gaze Experiment. Inside is an Infra Red LED spotlight and modified web camera. The camera films the participant in real time from behind a two-way mirror, as they experience the illusory effect of sensory deprivation.
IR Camera hack
For the Mirror Gaze experiment, I need a camera that works in darkness and can pick up Infrared light. Most webcams have an IR filter. Many such as this Logitech HD webcam have instruction online. Turns out mine was a slightly different model to this and meant that the entire thing needed dismantling and the…
Eye tracking experiment planning
Inspired by last weeks conference and some examples of how artists are working with Eye Tracking, I went back to BEAM Lab the following week to start the process of learning how to set up my own experiment using Eye-tracking. My plan is to incorporate this with the strange face in the mirror experiment. My main problem…
Strange face illusion with two-way Mirror feedback
Illusions of Invisible, alien hands, 3 arms, and shrinking bodies…
I have previously posted about the original ‘rubber hand illusion‘ in which participants are convinced a fake rubber hand is their own. A classic low tech experiment that can help us “understand how sight, touch and “proprioception” the sense of body position, combine to create a convincing feeling of body ownership, one of the foundations of self-consciousness (Nature…
Face as Interface
Trying to create a simple motion tracking patch using PD_extended and Gem, I came across this project by Elektro Moon Vision http://elektromoon.co.nr/ the mini App provides OSC data from movements such as eyebrows, nose, mouth, orientation scale etc. This is massively useful for an experiment I have in mind related to the “strange face in the…
Drawing a strange face in the dark
Shortly after my experience of the “Strange face in the mirror experiment” I made these drawings in low light conditions as a way of recording the perceivable elements of my face and shape of the head. The particles of carbon and graphite reflect well the visual noise, like static, one experiences in the experiment. These drawings don’t illustrate…
My experience of the ‘strange face illusion’
I had read about this experiment by which staring at one’s own reflection in a mirror in a darkened room for some time, can induce vivid hallucinations. For purposes of research, I had to try it. I found my bathroom could meet the following requirements… “… a quiet room dimly lit by a 25 W incandescent…