MAC Report

Alexandre Castonguay: Elements

This piece is an interactive installation using old cameras, projectors, and circuit boards. Basically, a video camera photographs your image as you walk by, and this image is then shown onto the wall through a projector attributing a specific effect, whether it is a water ripple, crystallizing effect, etc, etc. The digital images projected onto the wall change with every action or inaction you make, thus making the piece interactive and terribly interesting when you analyze it in the several different levels the artist intended (or at least the levels I believe he intended).

The first point I wish to address is the fact that this particular installation had several different projectors, as opposed to just one. I’m sure the artist could’ve achieved the technical results with only one set of a camera and projector, but the piece would then be lacking in what I believed to be one of the crucial elements, which is several points of view. The fact that you can view the room from several different angles is important because everyday people often view the same set of variables in different ways, or rather from a different point of view. Because one is standing in a different part of the room, he quite literally has a different way of seeing things, and thus of interpreting information.

Furthermore, the different visualizations also accentuate the idea of different perceptions of the world around us. One camera and projector deals with the image of me walking by in a much more different way than another set of a camera and projector. These cameras can be interpreted as the optical scope of a given person and the digital images on the screen can be understood as how this optical scope interprets the visual information presented before it. Although the basic camera function is the same, or rather a person’s optical nerve, the perception may be different when running it through a different set of computational parameters, or rather being interpreted by a brain that has had much more varied experiences and cultural background than another given person.

A person’s perception is paramount when dealing with matters pertaining to personal preference. Within the realm of my final project, I will be dealing with how a person creates they’re virtual world around them from the base of mere thought. The presentation of my abstract triptych paintings will force the viewer to develop a personal interpretation of what they are viewing, and conclude what it means to them. This conclusion is a base process for discovering what reality they will be soliciting when “logging on” to their personal interface.