PRESS AND PRAISE FOR A DREAM OF PASTURES:

Bruce Kubawara for Creative Class

Ariel Teplitzky for The Toronto Star

Cory Doctorow for Boing Boing

David Balzer for Eye Weekly

An interactive installation by STUDIO F-MINUS.
(Mitchell F Chan & Brad Hindson)

Now on exhibit at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC. Part of the exhibition Helios: Eadweard Muybridge in a Time of Change.

October 4, 2008
Outside the Art Gallery of Ontario.
Part of Toronto's Nuit Blanche Festival

OVERVIEW:

A Dream Of Pastures is an interactive sculpture and animated light projection. On a gallery or public exterior wall, the familiar form of a horse glows. On a pedestal several meters in front of it, a stationary bicycle beckons for investigation from the viewer.

As the viewer pedals the bicycle, he discovers that the phantom horse moves accordingly, animated by a nearby system of projecting lights and turning gears. The viewer pedals more vigorously, the gears rotate at a quicker rate, and the horse breaks into a gallop. Sitting in the saddle, the viewer creates a shadow that lines up with the horse, casting himself as a jockey in the projected world, galloping through the empty pastures of a fictitious landscape at an exhilarating pace.

A Dream of Pastures debuted to a one-night audience of over 60 000 viewers, and over 1000 riders as part of Toronto's Nuit Blanche festival in 2008, and in April will feature in the exhibition Helios: Eadweard Muybridge in a Time of Change, organized by the Corcoran Gallery in Washinton DC and later travelling to the SFMoMA and Tate Britain.

TECHNICAL:

At the core of the projector are six 100-watt metal halide lamps, shining through six images of a horse laser cut out of oak plywood. The series of circular shutters between the lights and the cut-outs are set up so that only one light at a time is unmasked, allowing it to shine through and cast the image on the wall. So as the shutters rotate, the images are cast in sequence.

The rotation of the shutters is powered by a generator mounted onto a nearby exercise bicycle. Once the viewer mounts the bicycle to begin pedalling, he casts his shadow onto the image of the horse, making him the horseback rider. A circuit on the front of the bike regulates and allocates the power coming from the generator, feeding power to a cassette player on the front of the bike (it plays music on the headphones when you pedal) and a device that makes the viewer’s shadow flicker in sync with the horse.