Wednesday, November 4, 2009

An Experiment in Analog Virtual Reality

Consider this a prequel. This image is of a kinetic sculpture I produced in Spring 2002, in my graduating year of my BFA at the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary.


The work is titled: An Experiment in Analog Virtual Reality. It was my first attempt at kinetic sculpture. It began with the purchase of a super8 camera at Salvation Army for $4. I began making super8 films, and taking courses in traditional and experimental animation at the Quickdraw Animation Society: quickdrawanimation.ca/


I became as interested in the mechanical parts of analog film projector technology and the process of flashing static images transforming into the appearance of motion, as the content of the film itself. I began constructing a device to make the mechanisms more visible and accessible to the viewer. The viewer pedals the stationary bicycle, which powers the film drive and projection lamp. A 1 minute long loop of super8 film, traveling through a plastic tube, comes out the top of the projector, over and under the viewer's body, and back into the projector. Looking into a viewing box, the loop projects a first person-perspective viewpoint of riding a bicycle down a street into oncoming traffic.


Materials: exercise bicycle, super8 projector w/film loop, steel, vinyl tubing, rubber, plastic gears, bike light w/generator, glass lens, electrical tape, duct tape, 2002.





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