With only a few exceptions from the animal kingdom, "Self Awareness" is mostly a human quality. Humans can recognize themselves as individuals by looking at themselves in a mirror and identifying unique features that differentiate them from others (in case you were wondering, whales, dolphins, and some apes can do this too). In this series of interactive installations entitled "Mechanical Mirrors," it is the individual who activates the art piece and becomes the subject of an ever-observing eye that captures his image and reflects it back at him in a reorganized and metaphoric way.
Standing in front of these installations, you see a version of yourself that has been processed and transformed into pixels constructed from different materials (wood, rusted metal, chromed spheres, pieces of garbage, and even fans), taking self-awareness to a whole new level. The added components in your image evoke different states of self-identification: For instance, a mirror assembled with colored trash found in the streets of New York, brings into the equation the metaphor of us reflected in what we consume and discard. Can you recognize yourself within the consumer society we live in?
I also found very interesting the fact that we are now obsessed with High Definition images and amounts of dots per inch. This body of work, however, relies on Lo-Fi images constructed many times with non-reflective materials that deprive the user of the ever-sought crystal clear image.
For your pixelated self: The Interactive Art of Daniel Rozin
