Process

Using a scale ruler, I incorporated the concept of balance using the Phi (φ) symbol in my initial sketches and started with the 1.618 golden ratio as a reference point. The golden ratio is derived from dividing a line segment so that the ratio of the whole segment to the larger piece is equal to the ratio of the larger piece to the smaller piece, creating a division in the extreme and mean ratio. This ratio has been used in western art, architecture, and literature to measure perfect beauty and symmetry.

With these measurements in mind, I began drawing and modelling a series of golden rectangles that correspond to the dimensions of a mono-focal cinema screen and closely approximate the 16:9 aspect ratio, which is the international standard for television and computer monitors. To add complexity to the two-dimensional nature of the golden rectangle, I started folding a piece of rectangular paper into various geometric forms and ultimately ended up with the skeleton of an icosahedron."

As a polyhedron with 20 surfaces, the icosahedral form presents an opportunity to experiment with multiple screens, which can be projected from multiple focal points. The first tests for projection on icosahedron resulted not only in multiplying the surfaces of the images, but there was also an exciting play of planes on what happened as the images were refracted at the dihedral points of the icosahedron skeleton. The subtle movement of the suspended mobile seemed to be editing the images as they started to merge with images projected from various focal points. Steyerl (2012:27) argues that when we start to think through multiple screens, we can disrupt the prescribed focal points of dominant cinema, and can create a new and exciting spatial vision of multiscreen projections, which creates a dynamic viewing space, dispersing perspective and possible points of view. The viewer is no longer unified by such a gaze but is somewhat dissociated and overwhelmed, drafted into the production of content.

The icosahedral multi-screens presented the possibility to instantiate Steyer’s (2012) provocation, but also take it forward and wonder what happens if the screens are not stationary. What if I designed the icosahedral multiple screens in the form of mobile structures suspended in space? What would happen to the furtive images/imprints when projected on a moving target?