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Paik Times Five Lets You Paint With Video Content

This Kinect hack from FlightPhase turns people’s bodies into an abstract painting tool.

Nam June Paik is a celebrated video artist who experimented with the format and paved the way for today’s technological tinkering in the new media arts. But you have to wonder what he might have made of this namesake installation which uses a hacked Kinect to allow users to paint with video. Called Paik Times Five, in honor of the pioneering artist, the piece was part of a one-night exhibition in Seoul called Infinite Loop. It was created by FlightPhase.

It works by users moving about to generate imagery, remixing different online videos which are the raw material. People can paint using the colors and textures from the videos to create abstract works. If they stand still with their arms out, the full video is revealed. Then by moving their bodies, the video begins to bend and break as users create images by alternating between these two states. To change the source video, users can lower their arms and a new one is picked at random.

@stewart23rd