«Miroir, miroir...»

An almost magical interactive installation.

Made by Clément Guérin,
Ronan Benec’h & Vassili Glezos.

«Miroir miroir» aims to illustrate our contemporary
narcissism by transforming our reflection in the mirror
into the faces of Hollywood celebrities.

Why ?

In "The Culture of Narcissism", the author, Christopher Lasch, is studying cases of narcissism in American society and the multiplication of these led him to see "reflects of the emergence of a narcissistic personality not only on the pathological scale but of the whole culture.” According to the author, idols have a major role in our societies, diffusing an image of perfection both in their public and private life. In fact, they are not judged by their actions but by their appearance. Because of their systematic presence in the medias, it seems essential to us to be like them, appearing rather than being. In our modern society this phenomenon has increased a lot due to a great number of factors like social networks, selfies etc.

So, when you approach the mirror and ask him “who’s the fairest of us all ?”, don’t be surprised if the answer is not “you”.

How ?

To achieve this effect rather striking which is pretty close to the magical mirror of Snow White, we simply put a screen behind a way mirror. With this setting, when the screen is black we only see our reflection but when it emit light, we can then see through the mirror. A webcam is hidden under the external top border of the frame which makes it difficult to see at first glance. Then, we use Kevin McDonald’s faceTracker program with some modifications to display the faces moving according to the viewer.

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At the Maker Fair Paris 2015.

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At the Maker Fair Paris 2015.

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At the e-artsup Demodays.

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At the e-artsup Demodays.

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At the e-artsup Demodays.

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The installation at the Demodays.

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First tests with the frame and the screen.

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Making of the way mirror.

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Exposition of the installation's first version.

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Making of the old box.

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The interaction design room, where we mostly worked in.

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Technical sketches of the first box.

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First tests of the program with this screen.

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First tests of the Kevin McDonald's original program.

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First sketches of ideas and some theorical researches.

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