Trigger
Pace University Digital Gallery, New York, NY
October 18 - November 8, 2005

view the quicktime (20 MB)
view the individual animations
view sequence of images on the 6 projectors


click image above for larger installation views
 



 

Trigger explores the vignettes, ebbs, flows and narratives that emerge from the relationships we have with urban spaces. It features seven projections that are configured to fill the given space. Visitors pass through a set of 6 motion sensors changing, black-and-white cityscapes to images enlivened by splashes of color and sound. The piece evokes the transient nature of urban space, and our equally fleeting and shifting perceptions of it.

"(Trigger) is in a transitional space, a stairwell, where students and visitors walk energetically to the next class or office. People twist and turn as they ascend and descend, encountering new image experiences along the way. The process of navigating in real space, rather than within the space of a computer screen, also adds a playful element. The visitors become performance artists or dancers unintentionally interacting within this encompassing artwork. The outside world is further transformed by large-scale transparencies covering the windows. Instead of ecclesiastical imagery, these "stained glass windows" represent the iconography of the city. The pacing of motion within the space, ambient sound and continuously changing projections become an exploration in visual anthropology - a form of "Kinesics in Context" to use the title of an important text in that field. In the work Jody Zellen has been able to incorporate the spirit of transient experience exemplified by the web into a human space which will force visitors to pause and reflect before returning to their immediate mission. Perhaps during that pause they will give some thought to the larger question about where we are all heading as mediating experiences begin to dominate daily life."

--Edward W. Earle, Curator of Digital Media, International Center of Photography, New York


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above photos by alan wiener