Vinzenz Aubry | Public Eyes

This generative video installation engages viewers with a circle of animated digital eyes that respond to human presence. As participants approach, they encounter an unknown entity of digital avatars closely following their movement. A mediated face-to-face encounter with the unknown. Who is really watching who?

In this generative video installation by Vinzenz Aubry (SMACT ’25), viewers are presented with a digital interface which transforms into a meditation on observation and self-awareness. As participants approach, they encounter an unknown entity of digital avatars looking outwards. They carefully track their movements, creating an immediate and visceral sense of visual dialogue with the Other. Quite the opposite of surveillance, this is an invitation to explore the complex dynamics of seeing and being seen.

Through public mediation, drawing on Emmanuel Lévinas’s concept of the Other, Michel Foucault’s theories of observation and power, and Ad Reinhardt’s consideration of the Black Square, the installation examines: Who is really watching who? An eye is not only watching, but acts as a mirror, reflecting our physical presence and our internalized patterns of self-observation.

The installation plays with what physiologists call “coenesthesia” – our immediate awareness of our own bodies in space and time. As viewers engage with the work, they become simultaneously spectator and performer, observer and observed, creating a dynamic feedback loop that challenges notions of spectatorship.

This event is presented as part of Artfinity: A celebration of creativity and community at MIT.