Conceptual framing
The metaphor of the mirror is central to thinking about technology: machines reflect human inputs, yet always with slippages, distortions, or reconfigurations. In Lacanian psychoanalysis, the “mirror stage” frames identity as relational; in media art, mirroring highlights how feedback loops entangle subject and system. This module explores AI and code as mirrors that are never neutral but co-constructive.
Description
Students work with real-time computer vision and generative systems to create mirrored relationships between self and machine. Using ml5.js pose estimation or face-tracking, participants generate visual reflections of their movements in p5.js, then progressively manipulate these reflections into distortions, delays, or uncanny doubles. The exercise extends into ComfyUI or style transfer workflows, where human-made images are “mirrored” through AI reinterpretations. By engaging with both literal and metaphorical mirrors, students reflect on how humans and machines mutually constitute each other in a recursive, entangled loop.
| Public sessions (open to all) | Workshops (sign-up required) | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Jan (Thu), 7pm | Introductory lecture + artist talk | 10 Jan (Sat), 10am | Workshop 1 |
| 17 Dec (Sat), 10am | Workshop 2 |
Join us for an artist sharing session with Andreas Schlegel and Aditi Neti exploring interactive applications as mirrors for understanding how we relate to technology and engaging with technological mediation.
We use Lacan's concept of the "mirror stage" as a starting point, examining examples from computer vision driven media art. How do cameras, screens, and algorithms create feedback between bodies and systems? This feedback makes interaction relational, interpretive, and co-constructed between human and machine.
We reflect on interaction as a driving design consideration, addressing how works anticipate, invite, and respond to participant actions and reactions, how systems are shaped through testing and observation, and how designers can prepare for unpredictable human behaviour within interactive, responsive environments.
We will share examples from our own practice that exemplify the use of interactive approaches, generative processes through coded systems, and the application of input sensors to engage in playful interactions together with an audience. Through this conversation we offer insight into how ideas develop through making, testing, and working with audiences, situating our practices within contemporary Arts x Tech practice.
Aditi is a South Asian designer and researcher exploring the interconnectedness and synergy between machine, man, and nature. In her practice, she aims to highlight how the complexities of human relationships with the natural world can manifest in alternative and absurd ways through technology. She is currently a design researcher at Design Factory @ Singapore Institute of Technology.
In this first workshop we will look at the technical requirements to capture the user's In this first workshop we will explore the technical requirements to capture users' movements and generate visual reflections of their movements in p5.js. This will provide a foundational understanding of how bodily movement is captured and reflected through code. Participants will learn how to integrate AI-powered pose tracking using ml5.js, including body pose detection, hand keypoint tracking, and facial landmark detection.
Core concepts: Capture, Follow, Trigger.