A Tenth of a Second is a generative and responsive video work that explores how machines see, and how we see what they see. The work is inspired by the tracking systems used in technologies such as self driving vehicles - part of an ongoing research collaboration with Richard Pearce.

The work creates a digital reflection of observers by constantly generating and regenerating a 3-dimensional light field of the adjacent space. Using real-time imagery from an array of cameras, this field – technically known as a Gaussian splat – is continuously refined in order to identify forms within.

The system has no prior knowledge of objects or form and is only concerned with mapping and connecting what it sees. The result is watching a machine discover the world around it: detecting, connecting and quantifying. Visual feedback loops are used to overlay the present with moments just past and point toward future possibilities.

The name A Tenth of a Second comes from the apparent speed of human cognition - the speed it takes for a sensory reading to register in the brain.

 
Credits

Commission by: World of Volvo, Gothenburg, Sweden
Ben Kreukniet: Artist
Richard Pearce: Architect
Valtteri Laihanen: Executive Producer
Louis Mustill: Technical Director
Andy Woortman: Producer
David Li: Visual Programming
Willem Kempers: Creative Technologist
Vincent de Belleval: Lidar Implementation
Fabienne Sommer: Assistant Architect
Ben Lee: Graphic Design
Steven McInerney: Sound Design
With special thanks to Dionne Griffith