lovebytes
Smoke and Mirrors Machine (2012) _MG_6544
Lovebytes 2012 - Digital Spring
Smoke and Mirrors Machine (2012)
By Alex May, in collaboration with Anna Dumitriu and Professor Bruce Christianson
Part of Intuition and Ingenuity: An Art Exhibition in Celebration of the Life of Alan Turing (for Alan Turing Year 2012)
Smoke and Mirrors Machine is a kinetic and digital installation interpreting the principles of secure communication between two parties and how it may be intercepted and subverted; a subject that came under close scrutiny by Alan Turing during his tenure at Bletchley Park working as a key part of the team decoding the German’s complex Enigma Machine communications.
Inside the cube is an image of a chess pawn (in reference to Turing’s investigation into chess and artificial intelligence) created by a laser being bounced around a series of mirrors and revealed as the cube is filled with smoke. The image only appears correctly at two points in space (alluding to two parties sharing an identical message): when an observer’s eye is positioned 0.5m away from one of the two sides of the cube where you can see the series of horizontal lines that form part of the image. When the perspective projection of the pawn is viewed correctly, the brain accepts the resulting image as whole, despite the complex physical distortion occurring within the installation that has duped the visual minds of the observers into believing they are viewing the same information, when clearly the physical form of the shape has been subverted by the artists when viewed from any other physical position.
The work is inspired by the “Smoke and Mirrors Attack” described in a paper co-authored by Professor Christianson entitled “Multichannel protocols to prevent relay attacks” which investigates contemporary issues in computer security and how it is possible to be sure that you are digitally communicating with the person or device that you believe you are; a kind of extreme development of the imitation game Turing described in his 1950 paper “Computing Machinery and Intelligence”.
The Smoke and Mirrors Machine was built in partnership with Professor Bruce Christianson, as part of their on-going artistic residency at Hertfordshire University.
Lovebytes 2012
Digital Spring
A Festival of Art, Science and Technology
22-24 March
Sheffield UK
Smoke and Mirrors Machine (2012) _MG_6544
Lovebytes 2012 - Digital Spring
Smoke and Mirrors Machine (2012)
By Alex May, in collaboration with Anna Dumitriu and Professor Bruce Christianson
Part of Intuition and Ingenuity: An Art Exhibition in Celebration of the Life of Alan Turing (for Alan Turing Year 2012)
Smoke and Mirrors Machine is a kinetic and digital installation interpreting the principles of secure communication between two parties and how it may be intercepted and subverted; a subject that came under close scrutiny by Alan Turing during his tenure at Bletchley Park working as a key part of the team decoding the German’s complex Enigma Machine communications.
Inside the cube is an image of a chess pawn (in reference to Turing’s investigation into chess and artificial intelligence) created by a laser being bounced around a series of mirrors and revealed as the cube is filled with smoke. The image only appears correctly at two points in space (alluding to two parties sharing an identical message): when an observer’s eye is positioned 0.5m away from one of the two sides of the cube where you can see the series of horizontal lines that form part of the image. When the perspective projection of the pawn is viewed correctly, the brain accepts the resulting image as whole, despite the complex physical distortion occurring within the installation that has duped the visual minds of the observers into believing they are viewing the same information, when clearly the physical form of the shape has been subverted by the artists when viewed from any other physical position.
The work is inspired by the “Smoke and Mirrors Attack” described in a paper co-authored by Professor Christianson entitled “Multichannel protocols to prevent relay attacks” which investigates contemporary issues in computer security and how it is possible to be sure that you are digitally communicating with the person or device that you believe you are; a kind of extreme development of the imitation game Turing described in his 1950 paper “Computing Machinery and Intelligence”.
The Smoke and Mirrors Machine was built in partnership with Professor Bruce Christianson, as part of their on-going artistic residency at Hertfordshire University.
Lovebytes 2012
Digital Spring
A Festival of Art, Science and Technology
22-24 March
Sheffield UK