REINTERPRETING REAL TIME IMAGERY: A JOINT PROJECT WITH ROUSSA CASSEL

Every act of seeing is a visual judgement; it is immediate and composed of indivisible ingredients. What we see gives us a way to orient ourselves, a way to navigate through an extremely complex world. What if however, we transcribed these visual ingredients (light and shadow) into a tactile or physical language. Our initial thoughts were to mimic the camera obscura, an optical devise that was first conceived in order to view an external image which would be projected onto a two dimensional screen. Our intent was to be able to represent a scene in real time through a static lens and filtered onto a dynamic surface.

Our initial inspiration for the responsive surface was a project done by Daniel Rozin which utilized 830 square pieces of wood and a built-in camera to rotate blocks which would recreate the images directly adjacent using light and shadow. Our project also used a grid of blocks, sized at two inches on edge, but the faces of the blocks were colored white, gray and black, each face representing the average value of the pixel detected above. Each block would be connected to a motor and a light sensor and rotate to display the face with a tonal value depending on the light reading. We envisioned the surface as an elongated floor installation composed of a 15×240 grid of blocks which would mimic the sky above.

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It is interesting how travels abroad can bring a new perspective to a city that I previously believed to be tired and grey. Given, I did return at the most liberating time (i.e. spring) where the leaves on the trees still hold their brilliant neon green, hints of young flowers can be detected at every corner and the eyes of the people seem energized and full of dreams.

To a foreigner, Seattle may seem like a overblown yuppie trend, a kind of false movement people are calling ‘sustainability’ and ‘regional pride’. I am here to tell you, however, that although there are many cases where shallow attempts have been made and have failed, there are many instances where this emerging mentality has brought a true and profound richness back to our culture.

This photo was taken at a restaurant in downtown Ballard of reclaimed steel from an old deteriorated bridge and used again, not just as ornament, but as the structural system for the building which holds…wait for it…their roof top garden where they grow their own herbs and select vegetables. Perhaps this may seem menial to some, but I for one am thrilled to see that reclaimed and restored materials are being used for more than a simple ornamental facade but used all the way down to the bones of our built environment. I see this as a true shift in our value system…a movement not just to be ‘green’ or ‘sustainable’ but return to quality and craft that we somehow abandoned along our way.

If there was anything that would describe Portugal’s true austerity and authenticity it would be the fado….sad, loving, poor yet rich in its soul and in its foundation. The faces of the buildings and the people with age may appear to be weathered, but if you look underneath the surface there is a wealth of experience so true to the pure human condition that it makes me wonder whose definition of the ideal is correct. Perhaps they are deprived of capital relative to the rest of the EU, as they themselves believe themselves to be, but from an outsiders point of view their lifestyle, more attune to the that during the early 20th century, lies a simplicity that we have lost. This song, about a sad guitar embodies the peoples connection to the sounds of life, the understanding of love and sacrifice. ‘Sad guitar, I heard you desperately moan that you were lost in the place where the sky grows dark, but hidden there in the darkness the fado was born’.