Standpoint | ACMI
Eyes Lies & Illusions | ACMI | Federation Square 2006/07
Renato Colangelo and Darren Davison
Renato Colangelo and Darren Davison's Standpoint is a large, walk-in camera obscura constructed for the exhibition Eyes Lies & Illusions at ACMI (Australian Centre for the Moving Image) situated on Federation Square & overlooking Flinders Street Station Melbourne. By entering the light lock, visitors can see the hustle and bustle of Swanston Street in a spectacular nine metre wide inverted projection, and share the experience of seeing the world 'captured' that fascinated people five hundred years ago.
A camera obscura, from the Latin camera (room) obscura (dark), is literally a darkened room with a small hole in the wall or window covering. Daylight enters and the scene outside is projected onto the opposite interior wall. The projection is upside-down and back-to-front but nonetheless the action, colour and detail of the world outside is transformed into a moving, two-dimensional image. Embodying the pleasures of spectators hip and the manipulation of light to capture images, the camera obscura foreshadowed both the cinema and the still camera.
The particular properties of light as it passes through a small opening have been noted for centuries; the Greek philosopher Aristotle (384- 322 BC) described how light passing through an opening of a square or triangular shape always produced a circular image, while scholars in the thirteenth-century developed the concept to view eclipses and other solar events without damaging their eyes. By the mid sixteenth-century, a biconvex lens was placed in the hole, concentrating the light rays and producing a much clearer image. Further technical innovations included the use of mirrors and multiple lenses to project the image right-side-up, and a white screen to get the brightest image possible.
The camera obscura has been utilised for entertainment, scientific enquiry and artistic endeavour. Painters used portable versions to enable them to trace the subject of their work directly onto paper, simplifying the difficulties of accurately rendering perspective.
— written by Fiona Trigg
'Aspects of 9.35am' Produced by Renato Colangelo
Renato exposed in the Camera Obscura 50 sheets of photographic paper (61.0cm x 50.8cm) measuring in total 6.2mt x 2.55mt.
The Soft focus and irridecent glow to the image produced of 'Aspect of 9.35am' is in the realm of a dream scape, you see people walking upside down past Flinders Street Station. They are there but here as well; real, yet unreal at the same.
The rush hour is over ! People are sitting perhaps contemplating the day or trying to remember what last nights dream was all about. I was much part of the rush hour of that day, working meticulously on my own to put up the 50 sheets of paper in complete darkness.
The concept of orientation and observation is forcibly put into place by the image produced by the Camera Obscura & 'Aspects of 9.35am'. Firstly by changing the familiar that is seen in 3D vision to the vaguely familiar but different in the 2D representation, in turn creating an alternate level of perception for the viewer.