Smart Guy Box

The Smart Guy Box is an experiment in the half second that passes between an event and our awareness. Our consciousness is not merely recognition of an event but an interpretation of the past. Upon looking into the box, the user is presented with a small monitor with themselves on the screen. Throughout, artifcial events are insertied into the video feed creating a unique and beliveable experience. Drawing from Tor Norretrander's The User Illusion, the Smart Guy Box makes use of the half second delay. This is the time it takes for any event to occour and our brain to register that event. This delay and our vanity makes the Smart Guy Box. Everyone secretly likes to see themselves on television. It is the narcasist in us all. This added with our faith in anything television presents, creates not simply a believeable experience, but an experience we want to believe. When looking for "actualness" in events, technology has the upper hand. It self-validates its output faster than the time it takes awareness and interpretation to occur on our side of the transaction. The Smart Guy Box presents technology-validated material for the user's interpretation wherein the user is an essential part of the material.

The event is produced through combining two video sources through a video mixer.

it began as a simple box.