So when I had that first meeting with Jason I got the idea for the following.
A clear container of water, maybe a box for construction reasons, is standing on a pedestal or other stand at a little higher than hand height. This container has one wall that is backlit. Maybe that wall is frosted to even the light. On the opposite wall is a video camera, monitoring people’s hands as they dip them into the water.
Another pedestal has a container of ferrofluid with 5 electromagnets attached on a top surface. As a viewer places their hand in the water, the video camera initiates a program, maybe MAX/Msp that tells a microcontroller which electromagnets to turn on and to what strength. The ferrofluid is slowly drawn from the bottom of the tank to the electromagents, ideally to all five simultanesouly.
This concept is based around the simple fact that most people’s first instinct when encountering the ferrofluid prior had been to touch it. Because the fluid stains you if you even look at it wrong, coupled with it’s fast evaporation rate, make this avenue of interaction impracticle and unrewarding. Especially so when you consider it doesn’t feel like you’re touching anything. What a letdown, you think it’s gonna be friggen T-1000 and it’s like touching room temperature motor oil.
I’m not sure of the full significance of water, but I remember they made a big deal about it in Constantine. That movie with Keanu? Anytime they wanted to transport their spirit to Hell water had to be involved somehow. I need to do more reading on this to find out if there is a historical or theological basis for this. I liked how they referred to it as a medium for transportation. The ethereal link grows.
Also Jason brought up the issue of memory or resonance. It’s something that I was having a hard time linking in, espeically because I didn’t want to force anything. Low and behold, Wikipedia to the rescue. Hard drives work on basic principles of magnetism. If an area is facing “north” and the next bit is facing “south” the read head senses that opposing field strength and knows one bit is 0 and the other is 1.
Hard drives. Magnetism. Memory.
Hard drives store infinietly complex things with binary sequencing. Either it’s a 1 or a 0. You’re with us or you’re against us. But what about the inbetween? This isn’t quantum electron theory, there has to be something happening when that drive changes a bit from a north to a south. I like the idea of the ferrofluid flowing from the bottom to the top as that moment. The infinite “floating point” inbetween the 0 and 1.
