PRAGUE.- Iris, designed by NY­-based design studio SOFTlab, is an interactive array of responsive mirrors and LEDs that creates a circular enclosure. Iris was installed within the Mirror Chapel as part of the Prague's 2018 Signal Festival. The mirrors rotate in response to the movement of people in the circular space, while the LEDs respond to ambient sound. The circular array can be thought of as a lens that reflects both light and sound. The installation is meant to blend or confuse light and sound through its capacity to focus and unfocus these mediums. As the mirrors rotate, they open the perimeter allowing not only direct views of the Mirror Chapel, but also creating a Mise en abyme, mixing the surrounding chapel, viewers, and light in a vertically fragmented, recursive, and panoramic image.

Both the intricate nature of the Mirror Chapel’s architecture and its use as a classical concert hall drive the design of the installation. A mirrored object in the round reflects the ornate surroundings externally while reflecting the viewer infinitely on the interior of the circular enclosure. This reflective enclosure is disrupted as people approach for a closer look. In this way, it is curiosity and sound that activate the installation. A closer look has the potential to produce a delightful bewilderment as the exterior leaks in while space and sound become multiplied in unexpected ways. In that sense, Iris is not an object, image, or artifact on its own, but relies on the existing space as the medium. As it bends, multiplies, and conflates light and sound it calls into question the lenses (both mechanical and cultural) that limit or expand our spatial experiences.

SOFTlab is a design studio founded by Michael Szivos and based in New York City. The studio has designed and produced projects across almost every medium, from digitally fabricated large­-scale sculpture to interactive design to immersive digital video installations. As the studio adjusts to a wide range of projects, they focus less on medium and more on ideas.

SOFTlab embraces projects through a mix of research, ideas, and craft. The studio is invested in projects that require significant research and experimentation, taking advantage of what they learn from the design of client­-based work. The constraints of these client­-based projects are treated as opportunities and tested through a collaborative studio environment with the hopes of solving typical problems in new ways, with new tools. Through a unique blend of backgrounds as designers, artists, architects and educators, the studio is able to approach every project from a fresh perspective to create rich spatial, graphic, interactive and visual experiences. By mixing research, creativity and technology with a strong desire to make work fun, SOFTlab attempts to create new and unique experiences.

The SIGNAL Festival of Lights is the largest cultural event in the Czech Republic, whose unique integration of art, city space, and modern technology has drawn over 2 millions attendees to Prague in the five years of its existence. The festival brings visually attractive works together with complex installations of international quality. With its support of new works of art, the SIGNAL Festival has become a respected platform on an international scale and a sought-­after venue for introducing the newest projects of the field.