Are media a mirror of the world? To what extent do media reflect reality condition? They do, but unfortunately only superficially and in a fragmented way. The concept of a fragmented mirror is behind 'Media Mirror', a project developed by Jeff Han, a consulting research scientist for NYU's Department of Computer Science. It is an interactive video installation composed of over two hundred channels of live cable TV, arranged to mimic the picture of the person that stands in front of it. When the presence of no user is captured by the sensors, the Media Mirror activates the auto mode and reflects the media system itself, creating the mosaic of one of the channels. The whole statement about the art poject is to show the bidirectional relationship between people and media. In western societies we are shaped by mass media, they influence our thoughts, looks and lifestyle. However media itself were created in our own image and they reflect our society claims. The Media Mirror is a high-tech project and a good metaphor at once. It handles sophisticated technology to process the video signal in real time in order to evoke, according to the author, "an overwhelming sense of the sheer scale of the medium".
Valentina Culatti