„At first glance, „Liquid Views“ might be about "experiencing oneself in a possible other being“ (...). Only in the second moment, the viewer realizes that his intimate act of reflection, is publicly visible to others. (...) The vivid image, that involves the viewer emotionally and intellectually, is actually a system of control. A public eye that betrays the viewer at the very moment when we are completely submerged in ourselves. Then we become immersed in the interactive plot. This is the moment in which the fiction starts a creative process. (...) With the dialogues that emerge between the self and the other/s we construct a "new reality" following our own aesthetic rules.“
Monika Fleischmann and Wolfgang Strauss, Interview with Alessandro Violante for Flux magazine.
Liquid Views is an interactive art installation composed of a horizontal touch screen, camera, sound, projector and large-scale projection. Attracted by bubbling and dripping sounds, the viewer looks from above at a screen whose simulated water surface shows one's own reflection. Touching the screen creates waves that distort the resulting self-portrait. The heavier the finger pressure, the stronger the blurring of the reflection. The large-scale projection in the background of the installation opens up a second perspective by showing the reflected self-portrait. Through enlarging and re-projecting, the singular, intimate and introverted experience of the viewer is reversed, becoming collective and public. At the same time, one's own self-image and, through it, a public (here the (waiting) spectators in the same room) is gazed at. “Liquid Views“ „translates the parable of Narcissus into a visual and intellectual reflection of the relation between image and effigy“1, between observing and surveillance.
1 Fleischmann, M., Strauss, W., Description of „Liquid Views - Narcissus' Mirror (1992-93) by Monika Fleischmann & Wolfgang Strauss, VisWiz GMD/KHM“ on YouTube, youtube.com/watch?v=bjq13wyjhA8