14.12.05 Tampopo, springlike simulations.
The same concept of 'interaction', i.e. reciprocal interaction between two elements, is based on the common language used by the two parts. When our primary instincts and our early childhood memory are involved, this act is immediate, and it's also a complex structure when we try to emulate it through hardware and software. Tampopo by Kentaro Yamada is an installation simple and disarming at the same time. It consists of a microphone, in which blowing, that controls a video of a dandelion ('tampopo' in japanese) loosing its lightest seeds, making them floating in the air. Apparently the breath intensity is proportional to the video effect, in a sine much bigger than reality. In this work the act of blowing becomes the interface for visualizing a well known phenomenon, a repeated experience with an aura of innocent magic that seem to be replied by the link between the microphone and the consequential video footage. The simulation is about a natural process, almost an ancestral process, that reflects its spring light effects into the luminance of a beamer. The natural object is 'mediated', with the effort of seizing its essence, desire and ritual.