Maker Faire Long Island 2024
Us
Home: New York, United States
'Us' is a pair of networked sculptures helping communication in real-time across different time zones, providing closeness despite the distance. Each features an OLED display for a face, with one representing the artist and the other his mother.
https://surajbarthy.com/us
Makers
Suraj Barthy Selvabarathy
Suraj Barthy Selvabarathy (b. 1992, Chennai, India) is a multimedia artist and creative technologist based in Brooklyn, New York. His artistic practice explores the temporal imprints of human existence, focusing on the question: "What are the traces people leave across time?" Hailing from a lineage of silk saree designers, he developed a deep appreciation for heritage and the profound sense of community around traditional artefacts. This background shapes his work, which seeks to understand how people connect and build legacies over time. Suraj sees people as threads connecting to each other, picking up where the ones before them left off, and leaving something for those who follow. This belief fuels his interest in interactions, reactions, and reflections. He advocates for technology to enhance human agency rather than replace it, resonating deeply in his art. Currently a Post-Doctoral Research Resident at New York University, Suraj's research focuses on time, connectedness, and technolo
https://surajbarthy.com/
What Inspired You to Make This?
I am from Chennai, India. The farther I moved from home, the more I think about it and make projects connecting me to it. This project came from my need to find a way to communicate with my mother living in a different time zone. We found it difficult to talk to each other because we always assumed that the other was busy or asleep and didn't want to interrupt by calling. This was an ambient and ubiquitous way to address that playfully.
