Crater
Exhibition View (Photographed by Adrian Buitenhuis)
Exhibition View (Photographed by Adrian Buitenhuis)
Three-channel video installation with surround sound: three synchronized projections, three curved double-sided screens, speakers, and fuchsia lighting | 4:30 minutes (loop) | Diameter: 16 ft. (4.88 m) | 2005
The three-channel video installation Crater creates an encompassing sensory experience of the interior of the volcanic crater by combining panoramic video projections, theatrical lighting, and a surround soundscape. As we approach, enter the structure, and step into its center, we become actively involved with the uncontrollable force of nature, navigating the throbbing volcanic landscape much as in a computer game or a simulated environment. From within the high walls of the active volcanic cone, we can imagine a parallel universe. The process of translating the landscape into a virtual model and deploying it as an immersive moving-image installation is essentially a process of transforming the landscape into an artificial kingdom for us to explore. Through acceleration and disorientation, the crater becomes a site of spatial performance in which the viewer is as much a participant as the volcano.
In both Volcano and Crater, a digitally simulated environment becomes a means of exploring the visual logic and ideological underpinning of investment in the digital reconstruction of space for scientific, military, and political purposes. Both works are based on a 3D simulation of the volcanic crater of Mount St. Helens developed by NASA scientists, who used a thermal infrared multispectral scanner to create a pictorial equivalent of the landmass’s varying temperatures and densities. Using the landscape in motion as both performer and performative space, these works expand Marsh’s investigation into our insatiable desire for immersion.
Credits
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3D Animation:
Sol Rogers -
Sound Design:
Anhtu Vu -
Sound mix :
Jean-Pierre Côté -
Programming:
Étienne Grenier -
Production support:
Vidéographe and Oboro -
3D model source:
NASA and Jet Propulsion Laboratory -
Funding:
Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Canada Council for the Arts, Arts and Humanities Research Council and University of Hertfordshire
Exhibition View (Photographed by Adrian Buitenhuis)
Exhibition View (Photographed by Adrian Buitenhuis)
Exhibition View (Photographed by Adrian Buitenhuis)
Related Texts
Lynne Marsh: Crater
Author: Martha Langford
Image and Imagination, McGill-Queens University Press, Montréal, 2005
Critical Tourism. On Lynne Marsh’s video installation Stadium – first cut
Author: Kathrin Becker
BE-Magazine, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, 2007
Landscape Immersion: Lynne Marsh’s Performative Spaces
Author: Johanne Slone
Art Papers, 2006
Exhibition View (Photographed by Adrian Buitenhuis)
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2005
Lynne Marsh: Crater
Cinémathèque québécoise and Mois de la Photo
Montréal
Exhibition