With DanceWorX and Rebecca Caron

Thermal Gestures explores our place in the environment, making visible the invisible. The artwork is a highly tactile interactive experience where touch and breath become visible. The work creates a sense of awe and wonder in the public. As the visitor touches the stretchy wall, their hands, arms and legs become visible. As they move across the surface, the fabric retains their body heat and displays the residue of their movement, which slowly dissipates over time. Even the heat of the breath is captured and becomes visible and almost tangible.

The artwork explores human sensation and response. Through technologies such as this, which augment our range of senses, can we as humans evolve into a species that is more aware of our environment and our impact on it, and modify our behavior accordingly?

Thermal Gestures is both an artwork and an invention. It utilizes a thermal infrared camera, custom computer software, a compliant and thermally-sensitive stretched fabric wall and a synchronized projector. This introduces a narrative into the piece around the process of innovation, invention, engineering and iteration. The piece was recently awarded a patent – USPTO #10,447,946 "Interactive Artistic Presentation System with Thermographic Imagery".

Image Credit: Photo of two dancers performing in front of screen with glowing green light is courtesy of Taos News / Nathan Burton.

About the artist: Marco Pinter creates artwork and performances which fuse physical kinetic form with live visualizations. He has a PhD in Media Arts and Technology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an undergraduate degree from Cornell University. His work integrating graphics with robotic sculpture is supported by grants from the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, the Santa Barbara Arts Collaborative, and the UC Institute for Research in the Arts. He has exhibited artwork and performances at cities around the world, including Dubai, New York, Montreal, Tehran, Hong Kong, Anaheim, San Diego and Santa Barbara. Wired magazine’s online UK site published a feature on Pinter’s work that explores perception through kinetic sculpture and graphics. Pinter is a contributing author to The McGraw Hill Multimedia Handbook and The Ultimate Multimedia Handbook. He is an inventor on over 70 patents, issued and pending, in the areas of live video technology, robotics, interactivity and telepresence.