Social Eyes is a temporary projection mapped installation situated in the University of Southern California’s Bogardus Courtyard, a sunken plaza containing classrooms and floor-to-ceiling windows allowing anyone to gaze inside. The piece leans into the idea of discovering a hidden, but populated area, as well as the inherent voyeuristic nature of the courtyard itself, by creating an eye that watches students as they work and traverse around the space.
Social Eyes draws from Emory Bogardus’ developments in the field of sociology, and specifically the idea of the Bogardus’ Social Distance Scale, which is a psychological testing scale created to measure people’s willingness to participate in social contact with different racial and minority groups. All footage used in the piece has been clipped from famous “eye-centric” scenes in Hollywood movies, playing with the idea of the viewer versus the viewed, and highlighting the question of: “Whose vision actually gets shown on the big screen?“
On-site documentation of Social Eyes, a projection mapping project showing eyes projected onto USC's Bogardus Courtyard.
The footage has been trimmed and mapped through TouchDesigner.