Note: If you see this text you use a browser which does not support usual Web-standards. Therefore the design of Media Art Net will not display correctly. Contents are nevertheless provided. For greatest possible comfort and full functionality you should use one of the recommended browsers.

Themesicon: navigation pathArt and Cinematographyicon: navigation pathDouglas
 
 
 
 
 

icon: previous page

and thus with the constitution of the ego as the consciously perceived self in the surrounding world. Now the picture seems dull, its resolution impaired, the contours confusing, changes in the light produced by shifting camera angles are perceived as flashes of lightning. The sharpness diminishes in the degree to which the projection surface appears, relief-like, to spread out.

The visitor in the space and the dissolution of shadows

The visual status of the ego signifies physical representation, and Douglas' technical configuration enables this physical representation to be experienced visually once again. Into the picture comes the viewer. The visitor to the projection space is forced to invade the world presented there, must place himself in relation to the film on the screen, must take up a stance within the room. In order to keep up with the projections shown on either side, the viewer must keep moving; this level of activity is not unlike the frequently changing camera angles in the film. A remarkable effect is produced if the visitor enters the

 

projection beam (and indeed it is almost impossible to avoid doing so, because the slanted screen produces a Cinemascope effect). When viewed from outside the projection beam, the image on the screen is inevitably distorted. Contrary to one's expectations and the technically (optically, physically) logical conclusion the image does not vanish when one enters the cone of light. The opposite occurs. Viewed inside one's own «shadow,» the film can be seen more clearly, distinctly, and sharp-edged the superimposition is revoked, merely the picture beamed from the opposite projector shines through. As if entering the film itself, the visitor sheds his material covering and moves to another plane, becomes the projection means, and thus a part of the film and the plot. Now an 9apparition, : the viewer completes the ghost story. Phenomenal in the most literal sense is the word for what Stan Douglas has contrived and for his astute and precise implementation of this potential transformation. He turns the entire installation space into a laboratory, a trial setup in which the visitor is part of the experiment, and due to being desubstantiated even becomes the substance:

icon: next page