DARK SKIES
Two-channel projection on dimensional (digitally sculpted) wall, 8’ X 8’
2016
Dark Skies is a multi-media, multi-sensory installation, which translates un-see-able phenomena into perceptible range, using mesmerizing visuals and sound to make tangible the penetrating effects of nightfall across multiple scales of being. It is a work that questions the future of the deep integration of life, light, and darkness which has developed over millennia. Growing out of my concern with light pollution and the recognition that night skies are becoming fatally obscured, Dark Skies captures the tension of a key cinematic moment: sundown. It reveals two distinct timeframes on the 24-hour clock simultaneously, a situation that can only exist by way of technology.
Dark Skies consists of a two-channel video projection on a large-scale dimensional wall: one side reveals a crepuscular sky and the other, a dark sky with smoky trails. The installation also features a soundscape, drawn primarily from field recordings of vespertine creatures, captured at twilight in the Rocky Mountains during high summer. The sound design in Dark Skies serves two functions: the first is to sonically articulate the ambiguous space between micro and macro environments, echoing those depicted in video elements, and the second is to add an interactive/immersive quality to the work. The sound elements are projected directionally into the exhibition space, allowing viewers to migrate between these two soundtracks, essentially moving between macro and micro realms.
(Design modelling by Sung Ho Kim, Axi:Ome; sound engineering by Christopher Ottinger).
