Tamás Waliczky: Focus, 1998, demo

FOCUS, FOCUSING

"Focus" consists of hundreds of photographs and can be seen as both a personal, digital photo album and a metaphorical vision of Europe. We see an imaginary street with people standing side by side and looking into the camera. The people and buildings are from different countries of Europe. The image is blurred. Any person or building can be brought into focus, and by changing the depth of field it is possible to see which other person is closest to the selected person. This allows you to examine the individual members of the crowd and the relationships between them. The camera is the interface in this installation.

"FOCUS" 1998

Interactive computer installation.

Necessary equipments for the installation: 1 PC, 1 trackball, 1 video projector.

Conception: Tamás Waliczky & Anna Szepesi

Design: Tamás Waliczky

Programming: Wolfgang Münch & Tamás Waliczky

Copyright © 1998 T. Waliczky & A. Szepesi

"Focus" was originally commissioned by "PHOTO 98: The UK Year of Photography and the Electronic Image" as part of a series of exhibitions featuring ten international artists and asking important questions about the nature of Europe and its changing political, economic and cultural identities.

Copyright © 1998, 1999 Tamás Waliczky & Anna Szepesi

Distributor: Tamaliczky and Anna Szepesi; Impressions Gallery, York, England

"FOCUSING" 1998

The interactive cd-rom version of "Focus".

Published by ZKM and Cantz, in the ZKM digital arts edition series.

"FOCUS" 1999

Second installation version, made by the support of the IAMAS, International Academy of Media Arts and Sciences, Gifu, Japan.

Conception: Tamás Waliczky & Anna Szepesi

Design: Tamás Waliczky

Programming: Wolfgang Münch & Tamás Waliczky

Special thanks to: Itsuo Sakane, Shiro Yamamoto, Nobuya Suzuki, Ryota Kuwakubo

Copyright © 1998 T. Waliczky & A. Szepesi

Used software: Photoshop, Macromedia Director

Used hardware: Pentium II 450, videoprojector, LCD monitor with touchscreen.

"Focus" is an image composed of and comprising 98 different layers. Each individual element of the picture is given a layer, and each digital layer documents a detail from Waliczky's reality.

The viewer can explore the individual elements of this virtual documentation according to contents and contex, can reveal the structures and principles of the digital space of perception and thereby also reveal its process of becoming. Yet in exploring the picture collage the viewer will never forget than he is moving through a virtual world of Tamás Waliczky's perception and creation.

Annika Blunck

"Focus" interactive installation at the Surrogate exhibition, ZKM, Germany, 1998