Liquid Views - Echoes of Self (2025)

Liquid Views - Echoes of Self is a documentary video based on the interactive installation Liquid Views (1992), which captures video portraits of visitors as they engage with a virtual mirror. First conceived in 1992 [Fleischmann et al., 1993] and reimagined for Electric Dreams [Electric Dreams, 2025] at the Tate Modern (2025), the work invites participants to touch a simulated water surface that responds with ripples - both reflecting their image and provoking a moment of introspection. Poetic video fragments document these intimate encounters, revealing how individuals stage themselves in both public and digital spaces. As one of the first interactive artworks to simulate the experience of a virtual mirror [Hansen, 2006], Liquid Views anticipated the aesthetics of the selfie and the dynamics of real-time video communication-predicting today's entanglements of presence, perception, and identity. By revisiting this pioneering touch interface [Dixon, 2007], the 2025 edition foregrounds the shifting boundaries between private and public selves in the digital age [Fleischmann and Strauss, 2023]. Liquid Views embodies the artists' vision of digital media as a "thinking space," where human expression meets machine logic, and reflection becomes a form of interaction. The interactive installation Liquid Views is part of the collection of the ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Germany [Liquid Views, 1992]. URL: https://www.fleischmann-strauss.de