TEARDROP FLOATERS

2005

projection, computeranimation, eyetracking

This piece attempts to show something undocumentable, a personal impression that cannot be shared.
A computeranimation of the entoptic phenomenon as characterized by shadow-like shapes that appear in one’s field of vision.
They can take the form of spots, threads, or fragments of cobwebs that float slowly before one’s eyes.

A person’s eye movements have been video tracked and transferred algorhythmically onto the floater objects.

Quicktime short videosequence | 6.1 MB

Floaters are suspended in the vitreous humour, the thick fluid or gel that fills the eye. Thus, they generally follow the rapid motions of the eye, while drifting slowly within the fluid. Floaters located slightly to the side of one's direction of gaze can be particularly annoying. When they are first noticed, the natural reaction is to attempt to look directly at them. However, attempts to shift the gaze toward them are frustrated, because the floaters follow the motion of the eye, and remain to the side of the direction of gaze. Floaters are, in fact, visible only because they do not remain perfectly fixed within the eye. Although the blood vessels of the eye also obstruct light, they are invisible under normal circumstances (and thus not annoying) because they are fixed in location relative to the retina, and the brain "tunes out" stabilized images (see neural adaptation). This does not occur with floaters and they remain visible, and, in some cases when large and numerous, annoying.Floaters are particularly noticeable when lying on one's back and gazing at the sky. Despite the name "floaters", many of these specks have a tendency to sink toward the bottom of the eyeball, in whichever way the eyeball is oriented; the supine position tends to concentrate them near fovea, which is the center of gaze, while the textureless and evenly lit sky forms an ideal background against which to view them.