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Projection-Mapped Bust Preserves a Holocaust Survivor's Story

CIANT illuminates the testimony of Terezín and Auschwitz survivor Markéta Nováková.
Screencaps via 

The Bust of Marketa Novakova - Interactive video mapping from CIANT Prague on Vimeo.

An interactive homage to Holocaust victims and survivors is emerging through the testimony of Terezín and Auschwitz survivor Markéta Nováková. Thanks to Prague-based interactive group CIANT, who in the past brought a bamboo forest to life with lasers, instead of having her speak in person, Nováková's story is being told from her own projection-mapped sculpture.

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Although it's still in prototype form, CIANT's animated bust (carved by Jan Kovářík) uses a combination of video mapping, interactive technologies, and physical cues from visitors to engage audiences physically and emotionally. When visitors step into the installation’s “interactive zone,” the video mapping device is triggered and Nováková awakes. Her face fills with a rosy skin color and, eyes blinking and forehead wrinkling, she shares her history. But when visitors leave the area, a motion controller placed just outside the interactive zone catalyzes an abrupt change: Marketa’s face is drained of color and the sound ceases, bringing her speech to a symbolic end. "If there is no active listener," CIANT explains in the project description, "the stories of our history will silently pass out of our minds."

See more of CIANT’s interactive projects and installations on their website.

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