Mirror Me

The installation "Mirror Me" addresses the radical self-expression, where as humans, we often lose ourselves.

Interactive Installation

Two cobots move mirror surfaces, thereby elevating our perception within the kinetic installation in the context of endless visual echoes and our surrounding.
With four movement-sequences together with corresponding sound-scapes "Mirror Me" becomes a hyper-charged echo-chamber of our ego.

"What do we personally gain by referring to ourselves over and over again? Why do we love being in the spotlight so much?"

Andreas Schimmelpfennig

Sound Design

The four soundscapes were designed to evoke varying emotions inside the installation. One sequence sounds light and floating, so that the movements of the cobots also appear more cautious. Another is aggressive and oppressive and reinforces the almost claustrophobic situation that occasionally arises between the two mirror surfaces. The third pushes rhythmically, creating resonant frequencies throughout the exhibition space with its immense 8-second reverb. The fourth could best be described as choral – creating an almost reverent feeling between the two mirror surfaces.

Location

Mirror me was presented initially during the Passagen Cologne 2024, a yearly held interior design week. St. Gertrud Church, where the installation was presented, fostered the perfect environment for the intriguing light play activated by the mirror movement. It brutalist architecture complements the transcendental experience in time and sound.

Within 6 days, more than 1100 videos of personal visitors experiences were automatically created and downloaded. Even more people experienced "Mirror Me", since the creation of the video is an option that people can choose before they enter the experience.

Mirror Me Andreas Schimmelpfennig 08 Vernissage Mirror Me

Interaction

The installation's design and the feature allowing visitors to download an automatically edited video of their experience from three angles 20 seconds after it ended – makes it nearly impossible to not share it with others. And thus to reintegrate visitors again into the loop of endless self-referencing.

Andreas Schimmelpfennig wanted to create a gesture that is an immersive "statement" about the (digital) possibilities that surround us today, many of them made just for one thing: To stage us as humans or, more precisely, me as an individual at the centre of everything.

Team Credits:

Creative Direction – Andreas Schimmelpfennig
Art Direction – Andreas Schimmelpfennig
Concept – Andreas Schimmelpfennig
Development – David Neu
Project Management –
Henry Marek Hilge, Laura Müller
Technical Direction – David Neu, Ioannis Mihailidis
Robot Movements – Jan Sickinger
Production Team –
Peter Pannes, David Le, Henning Ramke, Beatrice Cadar, Hadrien Ledieu, Annalena Moor,
Anastasia Pashinskaya
Music & Sound Design – Andreas Schimmelpfennig

Partners:

Cobots – Universal Robots A/S
Light- & Sound-Equipment – Aventem GmbH
Construction & Building Partners –
metron eging GmbH, Flexmirror GmbH

Awards

1x Gold

1x Silver

red dot grand prix