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Haunting Holographic Video Sculptures Turn People Into Scientific Specimens

Gabriel Barcia-Colombo likes to collect tiny people in tiny glass bottles. Don’t worry, it’s not as creepy as it sounds.

You could say that Gabriel Barcia-Colombo is something of a modern day mad scientist. The NYC-based video artist, who works primarily in the medium of “video sculpture,” collects miniature holographic specimens from the world around him and stuffs them into glass jars or other objects like suitcases, microscope sets and blenders. But don’t expect to find your run-of-the-mill butterfly or insect collections in this cabinet of curiosities, Barcia-Colombo is collecting people.

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Formally trained as a filmmaker, for the past four years this freshly-minted TED Fellow has been making haunting, interactive holographic video sculptures that memorialize moments and function almost like moving portraits, encapsulating archetypal characters like “the housewife,” “the businessman,” and even the artist’s own Facebook friends. “There is something I find fascinating about our compulsion to collect friends online through social media outlets like Facebook or Twitter,” explains Barcia-Colombo. “It’s no different to me than collecting and displaying bugs in jars.”

Much like the beloved animated GIF, Barcia-Colombo’s work distills a moment, a gesture, an emotion—taking something universally relatable and instantly recognizable, giving it a physical form, and condensing it into a tidy, bite-sized video loop. Most of the works are also interactive thanks to embedded sensors that cause the holograms to react to viewers or undergo visual transformations when triggered by participants, like in the piece A Point Just Passed (below).

A Point Just Passed, 2011

“The viewer is very important to the outcome of my interactive work,” says Barcia-Colombo. “I find that there is an interesting tension in giving the viewer some control over a work of art. If you have to chose whether to blend a small housewife in a blender, if you have to make that choice, you become implicit in the work. Your choices affect the outcome of the art. You may never experience the piece in its fullest unless you choose to be an active participant in the sculpture.”

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As a filmmaker, Barcia-Colombo was constantly frustrated by the rules of traditional cinema. He says he chose video sculpture because he likes the idea of taking cinematic experiences off the screen and into everyday life. “I like the idea of art that changes over time, art that emotes, art that yells at you,” he says.

A selection of some of his recent pieces is below. We’re anxious to see what this artist dreams up during his upcoming TED Fellowship.

For Those Who Wait, 2011

Wall, 2011

Jitterbox, 2009