PLAYing with projection surfaces

An experience is hard to recreate, especially a train journey. There are so many different factors that work together to create the experience. One important aspect when sitting on a train is that your not looking at a flat image. In order to try and add another dimension to my footage I created spaces where the video could be viewed. The image and videos below show some of my attempts at this.

Here I projected the image into a simple paper cup. I loved the way the projected image followed its curves. Also I think a space like this would make watching the footage a more personal experience as, at this size it would only be able to be viewed by one person at a time. I like the idea that when a person views the footage they enter a different space. . .both physically and mentally.

From my expeiments with the frosted perspex I found that the use of this material gave the footage a more 3D effect. So the next stage for me was to combine the qualities of this material with the idea that the footage can be viewed in a separate space. Below is a video showing the results of the footage being projected into a cube I made out of frosted perspex.

Again like with the cup I loved the fact that the image follows the corners of the material and bends around them flawlesssly. When viewing the footage like this you begin to feel totally enveloped in the experience and find that your mind begins to drift off with the passing landscape. I hope you can get some idea of this through my videos.

Like I said above there are many aspects of a train journey that create the experience that I love so much. This next experiment was looking at the reflections of light and shadow that we experience when looking out the window. As I had previously found that when projecting an image onto frosted perspex the image shines straight through it. This means that the image can be viewed from either side and also creates reflections and shadows on any surfaces behind it.

For this experiment I projected the image through the back surface of the cube. Although the image doesn't bend around the corners the way it does above, but it still creates a new space where the footage can be viewed. When viewing it from inside the cube it almost creates the feelong of sitting in a carriage. The image reflects off all the other sides and produces moving shadows.