Sidereal Projections

Sidereal Projections by Erika Lincoln
March 23 – April 13, 2007
Video Pool Studio
Opening Reception Friday, March 23

A virtual universe of faraway stars and planets is created from commonplace objects, compressed and reframed by video processing software in Erika Lincoln’s interactive new media installation Sidereal Projections.  Through the technological mediation of ordinary objects, Lincoln provokes a subtle distinction between the perceived and the known through making familiar objects and spaces strange.  In this work the physical world, the illusion of art and the imagination of the viewer work together to create the sense of a vast and distant universe.

The viewer navigates this strange yet familiar world, which includes a dome shaped projection screen and a hanging garden of LED lights, via a remote controlled “rover” equipped with a video camera.  From within the shelter of the projection dome, the viewer uses a joystick to control the movement of the rover as it explores an array of lights, wires, rubber balls and microphones hanging from the ceiling of the darkened exhibition space. The image received by the rover’s camera is relayed through a computer and projected onto the dome above the viewer.

As the rover moves through the space, sounds are triggered and change in response to collisions with the hanging microphones. In a side room a printer periodically prints images from the rover’s camera.

Over the course of the installation, starry printouts will fill the adjacent space, documenting isolated moments from the rover’s journey, lending a sense of remoteness to the installation and further mediating one’s experience of it.

Viewers are free to explore each component of the installation individually or to immerse themselves into the combination of all its elements.

Starting March 19, Lincoln will be making daily posts on her lablog as she installs Sidereal Projections in Video Pool’s studio. Check in for day to day updates at http://lincolnlab.net/lablogs.html

Erika Lincoln is an artist working in electronic media. Using the elements of confusion, disorientation, and uncanny sense-impressions arising from her simulations and mediations of the world, she examines the role spatial perception, memory, and imagination play in the construction of reality. Her work takes many forms such as responsive installations, kinetic sculptures, and sound and video.  Since graduating with Honours from the University of Manitoba her work has shown in galleries and festivals across Canada and Europe. She has been awarded grants from both Manitoba Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts and has participated in residencies at the Banff Centre for the Arts and Video Pool Media Arts Centre. In 2006 Erika was awarded a Canada Council Grant in New Media to develop a Low-Fi Virtual Reality installation.