I just found a link to this UC Irvine/CalIT2 project, the HIPerWall, and I think it provides an interesting comparison to my community built display project. The "World's Highest-Resolution Display Wall", HIPerWall creates a large, arrayed high resolution display. Of course, they have better image quality, and graphics workstations and storage to handle large data sets, streamed data, and 3d graphics. But I think my project offers interesting benefits in its scaleability, its flexibility--it can be deployed anywhere, the visible public record showing what th user community has used it for, and it does not cost a thing. Rather than requiring a fixed location and purchase of hardware, a community built display can be set up anywhere with internet connectivity and laptops on hand. It is a free public resource. What the community built display does is dematerialize the display hardware. With graphics servers at home and fast enough internet connections, I think that similar content could be served to the community built display. Consider that the HIPerWall was funded with a $393,533 National Science Foundation grant, and is only available to researchers who have physical access to that lab space.

HIPerWall news release.

The official HIPerWall page.

For more information on the community built display, look at roberttwomey.com.


A community built display test with Adriene Jenick.

Adriene's Spec Flic project was picked up by the new york times and cnet. Check it out here: http://www.nytimes.com/cnet/CNET_2100-1025_3-5905888.html

My community built display project is going to be used during Adriene Jenik's Spec-Flic performance at the October 28th CalIT(2) Building Dedication here at UCSD.

specflic.com
community built display
calit2 dedication ceremony

with the lights on.

This light sculpture was a one-night installation for the TNT event and opening of the MCA show on Thursday, October 6th. I installed the light sculpture in a room on the second floor of the museum that faced out over the plaza and the evenings event. I was excited about its positioning there, to serve as a visible beacon marking the show. It was difficult to approach up close, or stare at for very long, but it filled the space with light and heat. This is the advantage of having it in a relatively enclosed space. In this case, the positioning next to the windows also allowed it to serve as a beacon and lure. In the future, I think I would like to install it in a totally enclosed white room which it could entirely fill--the room capturing and using all of the heat and light that the beacon put out. Previously I have installed this in the closed space of my studio, and a larger version hanging in the middle of an entirely open courtyard for the 6th college show last March. (I'll post photos of that below or on my website.)

In any case, here is the label information for this piece, which was published in the program for the nights events:

Chandelier
2005
Variable dimension light sculpture,
Halogen work lamps, extension cords, surge protectors, between 8 X 500W
minimum and 30 X 50 Watt maximum size.
With a special thank you to Walt Whitman.

mcasd light sculpture view 2

MCASD light sculpture.

Front view

For our MCA show, I was asked by the curator to head a design committe to design and build screening rooms to show the video work in the show. Fellow students Sharon Levy, Steven Remington, and I worked with five filmmakers in our program to design spaces to show their work. During our design process, I gravitated towards Zerek Kemp'f smoke signals project (zerekkempf.com/smoke.htm), and designed this screening space in conversation with him. The experience was a rich one in many ways, particularly the chance to work closely with my fellow program-mates and working in the beautiful MCA space, and it is something that would not have happened without the impetus of Rachel Teagle's request.

Here is the label text that was on the wall next to my piece:

Name: Robert Twomey. (Washington, DC, 1979).
Title: Chimney viewing space.
Year: 2005.
Media: mixed media.
Dimensions: 5' x 5' x 9'.

Extended label text:

This sculpture was developed specifically to show Zerek and Chip's 'Smoke Signal' piece, as a conceptual and aesthetic reaction to that work. The interior space of the chimney is sized to allow a few viewers at a time, to create a temporary intimacy in the semi-enclosed space. Visually and materially, the form is a reaction to the aesthetic evident in the video piece, and to the etherial nature of the smoke signals themselves.

Rear view of chimney.

Rear view of the chimney.

A long view of the chimney I built for the MCASD show, Fresh: New Work...