User interface for virtual butterflies

Moony, by Akio Kamisato, Satoshi Shibata and Takehisa Mashimo from IAMAS in Japan, uses steam as both a screen and an interactive interface. If you touch one of the virtual butterflies projected into the vapor, it will fly away and disappear. But hold your hand into the steam for a while and butterflies will flock around and play. This merging of the virtual and the real worlds is further enhanced by the fact that the humid temperature of the steam evokes the warmth of living beings.

Although the butterflies reflected on the steam are imaginary, the shadow reflected on the columns (between which the creatures move) is actual. This work wants to assert that all existing thing are in fact ambiguous.

Winner of the Next Idea competition.
More pictures.