Video – Participation Pieces


This video is a record of one of my new Participation Pieces. They use images projected in the dark – with no screen. You can’t see the image until you create one. That’s what I invite other people to do. Initially, I provide scattered flour. Other materials will surely be incorporated soon. The way the screen is created changes the image. The image is never the same twice. Sometimes you see it only partially. Sometimes the screen moves. Letting the flour fall produces a rain-like effect. Blowing the flour into the air creates a cloudy effect. The participant changes the image. Without a participant, there’s no image to see. And the viewer’s point of view changes what’s seen. If you’re a participant your activity limits your ability to see all angles. If you’re a viewer you have to move to see all angles and you can’t see all moments from all angles. It takes many people to create and view the entire event.
Projection changes the image. Two-dimensional images become three-dimensional. A point becomes a line. A line becomes a plane. A circle becomes a cylinder.
What kinds of images am I projecting? Images of celestial phenomena I normally exhibit in print form. Images of the light patterns I render in my series Refraction. Animations of those line patterns created in Photoshop. I’m sure I’ll find more locations, screens, and images in the days to come.
Many of these images are of eclipses. Coincidentally, August 1 and 16 there are eclipses (solar and lunar). Find out more about today’s solar eclipses here.
After thinking about environmental sculpture and projection for a long time, I finally started creating projections during a Creativity workshop with Sean Kernan. You can find my June posts on it right here on this blog. Just type in Kernan in the Search field and click Go.
You can see my Annual Exhibit in person 8/2-3. Find out more here.
Stay tuned for online releases all weekend long.

3 Comments

  • Cemal Ekin

    01.08.2008 at 13:52 Reply

    Very interesting results John, the unpredictability and uniqueness add other dimensions to your work. Andy Goldsworthy’s work with ground hematite in water (redness running with the river) and snow tossed in the air gave me similar feelings when I saw them the first time. Very nice, good of you to share it here. Take care,
    Cemal

  • Joe Statuto

    07.08.2008 at 13:44 Reply

    The ideas and creativity I see here are an inspiration for me to open my mind to new possibilities. Seeing in a new way is so important as an artist. Thanks for sharing the results.
    Joe

  • cinioffub

    10.10.2008 at 05:10 Reply

    Hello.
    🙂
    The images were released to celebrate the arrival on Monday of Emma Tallulah, the couple’s third daughter.
    Bye.

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