BLINDHÆD is the first multi-media installation featuring event cameras. Event-based vision is a novel computer vision technique in which the imaging sensor only responds to local changes in brightness. Event cameras only react to movement in their visual field. Thereby, they produce radically different, otherworldly imagery that offers a novel artistic interpretation of vision itself.
“through the cracks”
Historically, human sight has been subject to optimization – from glasses to microscopes and telescopes. BLINDHÆD explores this ongoing transformation of our senses in a world increasingly shaped by technology and body enhancement. The first installation “through the cracks” presents an artistic rendering of laser eye surgery, while the second symbolizes the post-enhancement sense of seeing. In the second installation, event-based vision serves as a metaphor for this transformation: abstract forms emerge from a sea of pixels, representing a human navigating a new perceptual reality. The human interplay with a robotic arm further illustrates the merging of human and machine, depicting a haunting yet emotional symbiosis. The artwork paints an outlook into the continuation of the constant trend of technological enhancement of our senses.
BLINDHÆD Room 1 at Galerie Stadt Sindelfingen, Germany
Event-Based Video “BLIND SPOT”
BLINDHÆD is an inter-disciplinary collaboration between artists and researchers. The media artist Justin Urbach (*1995, Academy of Fine Arts Munich) teams up with scientists from TU Berlin’s Robotic Interactive Perception group (PhD Student Friedhelm Hamann and Prof. Guillermo Gallego) and the Robotics and Biology Lab (PhD Student Alexander Koenig and Prof. Oliver Brock). The Berlin-based duo Aqua Veen (William East and Alexander Koenig) creates an immersive soundscape for the event-based video installation: computer vision algorithms extract shapes from the event video stream and control synthesizers to create an immersive and reactive sonic dimension of the futuristic visual signals
In BLINDHÆD, vision is no longer static or purely human. It is optimized, expanded, and intertwined with technology. The exhibition invites reflection on the limits of perception and the speculative future of seeing. The work was first shown at Galerie Stadt Sindelfingen from March through May 2025. By bringing BLINDHÆD to CVPR 2025, we continue the dialogue in the scientific community, questioning the implications of a world where machines not only assist but redefine how we perceive.
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BLINDHÆD Room 2 at Galerie Stadt Sindelfingen, Germany