Israeli artist Daniel Rozin has designed an interactive "mirror" from faux-fur bunches that change colour to create moving silhouettes (+ movie).
Rozin's PomPom Mirror is formed from 928 spherical beige and black tufts, arranged onto an octagonal grid that mounts onto a wall.
Acting like pixels, the pompoms work in pairs that are controlled by motors – pushing and pulling them backward and forward so only one of each couple is displayed at a time.
The motors are activated in response to movements captured and translated by a Microsoft Kinect sensor located on top of the piece, which routes the data through a computer. "The computer recognises the shapes and translates to commands to move the motors and pompoms," Rozin told Dezeen.
When a person or object moves into view, the beige tufts are swapped with the black ones to mimic the shapes and turn them into an image.
"I have been creating mechanical kinetic 'mirrors' for quite some times and have employed various materials and techniques in the process, but these have always been hard, rigid materials," Rozin told Dezeen. "I have wanted to use fabrics and soft materials for some time but couldn't come up with a way to bridge the gap between the idiosyncratic behaviour of soft materials and the complexity of mechanical systems."
"The breakthrough was when I realised that a soft faux-fur ball had a unique ability to squeeze and then recover its volume," he said. "This way the pompoms can force their way through neighbouring pompoms."
The PomPom mirror is currently on show as part of Rozin's solo exhibition Descent With Modification at New York's Bitforms Gallery.
The show, which continues until 1 July, also features similar interactive projects by the artist that include a huddle of soft-toy penguins that spin to reveal their white tummies in response to the shapes of people standing above.
Images are courtesy of Bitforms Gallery, New York.