Scramble
The disorienting urban rush, depicted through geometrical abstraction
Scramble - Barak Chamo (2020)
A crossing-like pattern of rotating white lines is overlaid onto the recorded video, resulting in rushing white spots the run through the lengths of the bars. These lines, if seen on a simple computer display, would evidently be a simple visual pattern, but when projected onto the sculpture the direction of the moving lines clashes with the alignment of each bar, resulting in a dynamic Moire effect that disorients the viewer and creates the sensation of continuous reversals of velocity.
The work addresses the disorienting experience of traversing overcrowded metropolitans through unnatural means of mass transport, carved in straight lines through the bellies of cities and stand in direct opposition to our innate abilities to navigate and orient.
Scramble is a light sculpture developed during a residency at MASS MoCA’s Studios program. Made of discrete bars of light, each bar projects a line of an overlaid image, essentially becoming a “reduced geometric display”. The formation of the bars traces the arrangement of underground subway lines in Tokyo’s Shibuya station, while the image projected on the bars is a first-person view I recorded while crossing the over-ground crossing, the busiest pedestrian intersection in the world.
Bill of Materials
Programmed LED lights
Custom aluminum frame
polymer diffusion
custom electronics
