Small Spectacle about Unattainable

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English title / Small Spectacle about Unattainable
Original title / Pieni spektaakkeli saavuttamattomasta
Type / installation
Genre / Study of time and space, Interactive,
Country / Finland
Picture ratio / 4:3
Language / Silent
Sound format / Silent
Year / 2003
Notes / Interactive video installation.
Cast / Lauri Astala (author)
Press photos
Press photo 1

A diagonal wall (covered with black velvet) divides a square room into two parts, one of which is accessible to the spectator. In the center point of this wall is mounted a lens that produces a camera obscura -image of the other side. The image fits exactly on the opposite surfaces on the spectator’s side (floor to ceiling, wall to opposite wall,…). The space one enters is therefore an (up-side-down) image of the other side. In addition, on small holes in the dividing wall are attached sandblasted plastic balls with lenses that focus and reflect camera obscura -images of the other side on their surfaces. A couple of these balls reflect a real-time video image of the spectator’s side, and because this side is an image of the other side, on these balls the spectator thus sees himself simultaneously “being in the other side.”