Workaholic, 2000



Workaholic, 2000 is an installation artwork done by Perry Hoberman. This artwork uses Galileo’s discovery of timekeeping device as inspiration, and is made up of a pendulum that hangs from the ceiling, with an omnidirectional bar code scanner as the bob(weight) at the end of the cable.

The scanner then projects an intense red laser beam towards the floor, scanning it and reading symbols printed on a 12 foot bar code carpet. An image generated by a projected installed on the ceiling outputs an image on the carpet. An octagonal railing surrounds the pendulum and carpet, with holsters for eight pneumatic air-guns camouflaging as hair dryers.

Participants are allowed to alter the pendulum’s path across the carpet by aiming and turning on the hair dryers towards it.

The scanner swings and read the 1500 unique three-character bar codes printed in a spiral pattern, thus transmitting data, as ASCII characters to a computer. The software developed by Perry Hoberman then detects and determine the location and path of the pendulum and thus swings according to the laws of physics while colliding with the projected objects in a three-dimensional virtual world.



References

http://www.perryhoberman.com/page26/index.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBlKxgUAxjU