The Interactive Table is a complex structure made of wood, a poor and noble material at the same time that recalls the Christian symbolism. The surface of the table – 11 x 1,2 metres wide, 88 centimetres high – split in 14 sections on which video projectors, hung under the artwork, project various settings, representing different conditions of use of the table. On both the outlines of the long sides of the table, 28 position sensors are applied (14 on each side, placed at a distance of 80 centimetres from each other) to enable video clips of arms and hands, which act according to the reproduced setting. Thanks to this device, each user, getting close to the table and enabling the sensor, has the feeling of an exclusive experience.

Each setting offers a series of mutually related actions, structured as modular loops that work both independently and in synchronic interaction. When two or more contiguous sensors are enabled together, a customised software selects videos of compatible actions, which interacts with each other, customising the visual performance in a myriad of different possible compositions. For instance, in the section devoted to the domestic table, a sensor could enable the projection of making home made pasta, while the sensor on the side of the table trigger the projection of a kid’s arms stealing and modelling a piece of that dough.

This algorithmic complexity aims at describing the conjunction and continuity of the various human activities, which are carried out daily around a table.

The goal of the project is to represent – through the video projections and the table as a makeshift – the sharing and interdependence of the experiences, which the relational chain of a community is based on. By means of a non-linear narration joining diverse movie techniques – film clips, stop-motion animations, pixilation, etc., all distinguishing features of MammaFotogramma studio –, the Interactive Table replicates the richness and variety of the human consortium.