Tag Archives: interactive

Presence by Stefano Fake & The Fake Factory (2022–present)

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Presence by Stefano Fake & The Fake Factory (2022–present)

Presence is an interactive installation conceived by Stefano Fake and The Fake Factory, with the technical design framework developed in TouchDesigner by Alberto Gennaro. This work foregrounds a central theme in The Fake Factory’s creative philosophy: the physical presence of the audience as active agents within the artwork. Rather than mere observers, visitors become integral performers whose movements dynamically shape both gestural choreography and chromatic composition within the installation. 

Interactive installations constitute a form of artistic practice that actively solicits audience participation, whether through technological mediation or handcrafted mechanisms. These works are frequently kinetic in nature, transforming static objects into dynamic, participatory experiences. By foregrounding interaction, such installations challenge conventional modes of spectatorship associated with traditional art forms, shifting the emphasis from passive observation to active engagement and immersion.

The artwork under discussion exemplifies this shift. Unlike prerecorded or pre-rendered visual material, the installation generates imagery in real time, continuously shaped by the interaction between participants and the system. As viewers position themselves before the screens, their silhouettes are captured and reconfigured into abstract visual forms.

This process is facilitated through the integration of Kinect sensors and cameras, which register bodily movements and gestures. The captured data is then translated into evolving visual representations, producing an environment in which participants witness abstracted versions of themselves projected within the artwork.

Such installations not only engage audiences but also invite them to experiment with their own corporeal gestures as vehicles of artistic expression. In doing so, they destabilize the boundary between physical and digital domains, offering an evolving, generative encounter with art that is both participatory and immersive.

The aesthetic and conceptual DNA of Presence echoes early video-art experiments, notably Norman McLaren’s Pas de deux (1968), and Stefano Fake’s own explorations in the early 2000s, such as The Essence of Dance (2004–2005). In this contemporary installation, the traditional dancer is replaced by the everyday museum-goer, effectively democratizing the role of performer and redefining immersive art as a participatory space where anyone—instinctively—becomes central to the experience.

Visitors physically engage with the installation through movement, generating infinite gestural and color sequences in real time. The body becomes both instrument and catalyst: every shift produces a visual response, turning improvisational motion into vivid chromatic expression iicedimburgo.esteri.it+1. This capacity for co-creation in the moment imbues Presence with a sense of immediacy and unpredictability that is both aesthetically striking and emotionally resonant.

As one of the most significant immersive artworks of recent years, Presence builds upon and advances the tradition of experiential art pioneered by Stefano Fake. The work exemplifies the studio’s mission to dissolve the boundary between spectator and artwork, empowering visitors to inhabit, shape, and transform the visual environment in real time.

STEFANO FAKE & THE FAKE FACTORY “THE ART OF COLOURS” Light Art Installation (2012 – today)

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STEFANO FAKE & THE FAKE FACTORY “THE ART OF COLOURS” Light Art Installation (2012 – today)

The Art of Colours is an evolving immersive installation that explores the transformative power of light and color, using space to engage the visitor’s perceptual faculties. The installation generates a sensory dialogue between the artwork and the viewer, inviting a phenomenological experience where art and perception merge.

Originally conceived in 2012, this installation has been presented in varied, site-specific contexts—most notably during Milan’s Fuorisalone (the global hub of Design Week) and Florence’s Light Festival, which began that same year. 

In typical Fake Factory style, the artwork transcends passivity: the visitor’s physical presence becomes integral to the color and light interplay. Walking into the installation, the viewer’s silhouette, movement, or proximity can modulate how color fields shift, blend, and interact—thus shifting the artwork dynamically in response to human presence .

Much like Stefano Fake’s earlier immersive works, The Art of Colours is oriented around the visitor’s embodied experience. It offers a dynamic perceptual field where the boundary between self and environment blurs—a cornerstone of Merleau-Ponty’s theories on embodied perception. Participants do not merely observe the installation; they enact and co-create it.

Rather than plot or narrative, The Art of Colours communicates through color and forms. This aligns with an interpretation of light as a semiotic medium—evoking emotional responses and sensory resonance in lieu of explicit representation. The absence of figurative imagery places emphasis on abstract affective experience.

In the new millenium, digital art had begun shifting away from the spectacle of technology toward immersive, embodied experiences. The Art of Colours exemplifies this shift: the technology—projections, sensors, lighting—is designed to vanish into the experience itself. What remains is the perception—pure, immediate, and orchestrated through color and movement.

In The Art of Colours, light and color are not fixed—they shift in relation to the physical presence of the audience. The human body becomes part of the feedback loop, functioning almost like a brushstroke in a living digital canvas.

  • Traditional art situates the viewer as an external spectator, but here, simply being in the space alters the artwork.
  • Viewers walking, standing still, or interacting with one another cause color fields to ripple, blend, or shift.
  • This creates a personalized and collective aesthetic journey:
  • Personalized: each visitor’s presence generates unique variations.
  • Collective: multiple visitors can transform the environment together, creating layered dynamics of light.

This makes the artwork inherently unrepeatable: no two moments are identical because the composition emerges from lived presence.

Phenomenological lens:

The installation amplifies Merleau-Ponty’s idea of the body as the locus of perception. The viewer perceives light, but also perceives themselves as a generator of light transformations. The boundaries between self and artwork blur.

Digital aesthetic lens:

The role of technology is not to be showcased but to disappear into experience. Instead of seeing “a computer program,” the visitor perceives “a world of shifting colors that respond to me.” This situates The Art of Colours within post-digital practice, where the focus lies on human experience, not technological novelty.

Implications of Modulated Environments

  • Agency: The visitor gains agency in shaping their aesthetic environment—art is no longer delivered, but co-created.
  • Relationality: The artwork is relational (Bourriaud): what matters is not an object on the wall, but the relationship between light, space, and the embodied visitor.
  • Ephemeral Art: Since each moment is tied to a presence, the artwork only “exists” in its full sense when it is inhabited—without presence, it collapses back into potentiality.

 The viewer presence actively modulates sensory environment:

  • The body is not external but constitutive of the artwork.
  • Presence and absence directly alter the visual outcome.
  • The environment is responsive, ephemeral, and relational—existing only through the ongoing co-production between visitor and system.