Brakelights is a real-time computer system that senses color changes in the environment to make choices from a database of dialogue lines…a live cinema-generating machine. The program reads the color levels in every pixel of every frame in real time.
The artist filmed 200 random lines of dialogue between a man and a woman in five different emotions—anger, irritation, indecision, hope, and love. “I hate you” to “I love you” and everything in-between.
The camera was placed on the brakelights of an evening traffic jam in LA and a computer program matched the brightness of red to specific types of dialogue lines. When the traffic jams, the red gets brighter, the couple begins to fight. As it begins to flow again, they reconcile and fall back in love.
The environment directs and assembles the film.