arl.gif (859 bytes)  Return to Images


Mind's Eye

video installation 1998

stretched canvas membrane / backlit flow chart that brightens and dims / 3 channels of video on various sized monitors / camera supplying live images of the motorized switching mechanism that controls the lights


Black canvas is stretched across the width and height of a room. It is back-lighted. A big glowing flow chart appears on the canvas. It slowly brightens and then slowly dims; sometimes it dominates and sometimes it is subordinate to the video images inside each shape of the flowchart. There are three different videotapes playing on the nine monitors. The same image may be visible on several monitors at once. Two monitors have amber and one has a green screen meant to transmit only text and data. There is a black and white surveillance monitor and six full color monitors.

The videotapes are each a sequence of a few seconds of archetypal images: a door opens, an eye blinks, hands are clasped and shaken, feet descend a staircase, a mouth speaks, etc. Sometimes a screen goes black for a minute. There is a larger central video image of a model of DNA, turning. One monitor shows the movements -- real time -- of the motorized mechanism that is making the lights brighten and dim; there is a live camera aimed at the mechanism.

"Mind's Eye" reflects my thoughts about the activities of the brain (as if we could see all the information that occupies our brain at one time).  A flowchart is a diagram designed to illustrate relationships or processes, such as arriving at a conclusion.  We are hard wired in some of our brain processes; it's in our DNA. Other input comes from our senses.  Our thoughts are sometimes a logical sequence leading to a conclusion, but sometimes there are dead ends or diversions. A diversion can lead us in a new, serendipitous direction.

Next Image  arr.gif (862 bytes)

© 1999-2004  Adrienne Klein
Web Services by L&P Media