The Eyes Follow You Down The Street

By Stuart Black Last edited 116 months ago
The Eyes Follow You Down The Street
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Being blatantly eyeballed in public can put anyone off their guard, but what if it’s a building that’s giving you looks?

The Wellcome Trust has set up two massive pairs of eyes in the windows of their London headquarters to watch over Euston Road and react to people passing by. The artwork, ‘Eye Contact,’ by Peter Hudson is a video installation made from real footage taken from the eyes of 68 volunteers. The giant screens then recreate digital eye-scapes that consist of over 650 coloured pixels, lit by 16,000 LEDs. These are programmed to change throughout the day — rolling, staring, flirting — before they close at sunset when the building goes to sleep. And if that’s not weird enough, the eyes are set to pop open if anyone passes by at night. Can a building get insomnia, we wonder — and next morning will it have cross eyes? Cool or creepy — we still aren't sure.

‘Eye Contact’ is the second winning entry from a competition run by the Wellcome Trust in 2014 for students at the University of the Arts London. It can be viewed by walking past the Gibbs Building on Euston Road for the next year.

Last Updated 16 July 2014