| Snibbe | Artwork | Screen Series | ||||||||||||||||||
Screen Series,
2002-2003
Each work in the Screen Series initially consists of a “screen”, which is a rectangle of pure white light projected onto a wall. Through computer mediation, these projections react to the presence of viewers as soon as they step between screen and projector, thus putting the body and projection on equal footing, or even making the body dominant to the projected image. In so doing, they allow viewers to create cinema with their bodies, either through reactive projections that respond to viewers, or through porous projections that record viewers' movements. Although based in the contemporary technologies of computer vision, simulation, and digital projection, these works primarily refer back to the history of cinema and light projection, when silhouettes, rather than exact representations, graced animations, shadow theatre performances, and magic lantern productions. These works likewise emphasize viewers’ shadows, rather than their exact representations. This emphasis on shadows paradoxically creates a stronger integration of viewers' bodies with the projections, since a picture of a viewer’s shadow is almost identical to the shadow itself, while a picture of a viewer’s body is less similar to their actual three-dimensional form. With such an approach, these works have a similar agenda as structuralist film: the removal of layers of cinematic illusion to reveal the nature of the image itself. The Screen Series further refers to the early years of cinema, when cameras functioned as all in one photographic, developing, and projection devices. These early cameras first captured images onto film through a lens, then served as developing tanks when chemicals were poured into their bodies. Finally, the camera was emptied, dried, and turned into a projector by placing a light behind the lens. This contemporary combination of camera, projector, and computer echo those early cinema cameras, with computer “processing” replacing chemical processing.
Scott
Snibbe at UC Irvine's Beall Center. Collette Chattopadhyay, Artweek,
February, 2004 (pdf) Body, Screen and Shadow. Scott Snibbe. SMAC Journal. 2003 Works in the Screen
Series were produced with the support of The Beall Center for
Art and Technology, Art Interactive, The San Francisco Media Arts
Coalition, and GenArt San Francisco. Photographs
by Kyle Knobel, Scott Snibbe and Tavo Olmos |
