Mechanical Mirrors (Performative Version)
DANIEL ROZIN
Artwork Description:
Performance and Reflection Mechanical Mirrors (Performative Version) extends Daniel Rozin’s ongoing series of interactive mechanical mirrors into live performance, centered around the celebrated work Wooden Mirror. In this performative context, the work becomes a sculptural system that converts human presence into a continuously shifting field of moving wooden elements. Activated by the gestures and rhythms of performers and viewers, the work transforms reflection into a shared spatial event while functioning as both a visual and musical instrument. Sound emerges through the movement of the system itself, including the mechanical noise of hundreds of motors and the percussive clacking of wooden elements against the structure that are composed into music. Musical Performance The work extends the sculptural logic of the Mechanical Mirror series into musical performance. It has been presented at venues including Carnegie Hall, in a Pulitzer Prize nominated piece with the American Composers Orchestra, MASS MoCA with Bang On A Can, La Jolla Summer Fest, Breckenridge Festival of Arts Material Presence At a time when images are increasingly seamless and disembodied, Mechanical Mirrors emphasize material process and human presence. Their mechanisms remain visible and their transformations physical and immediate. Reflection is not simulated but constructed in real time through the encounter between bodies, light, sound, and structure. By insisting on legibility, material presence, and craft, the work reclaims technological experience as something embodied, shared, and genuinely felt. Craft All aspects of the work, including design, fabrication, electronics, and programming, are designed, fabricated, and programmed solely by the artist.
Project Collaborators:
Collaborators (Carnegie Hall performance): Tamar Muskal- Composer Lucy Fitz Gibbon - Soprano American Composers Orchestra
