Peter Sparling at WORK

I have worked with Peter Sparling of the UM Dance faculty for many years on a variety of projects.  

This one was a very compelling video installation in the basement of the WORK Gallery on State St.

He had 3 synchronized videos playing back on 3 semi-transparent fabric screens, so the viewer could see all three surfaces a the same time, either as one tableau from the front or by wandering in and out between the screens.  The videos were produced with this in mind, and so played off - and with - each other throughout the 8-9 minute piece.  The imagery was based on manipulated photographic and video images.

Below is what the final setup looked like, although not in its finished state (the pedestals securing the lower corners of the fabric were all painted white).  It does show the layout, with the screens about 6 ft. apart and very short throw projectors less than 1 ft. from the front of each screen.

This is looking along the top of the screens and shows all three projectors.  It also shows the mirror on the front of the projector that is part of the short throw geometry.

Here you can see one of the wooden strips attached to the ceiling rafters to hold up the top screen supports (left side of photo).  Also stuck in on top of the ductwork is a media player, feeding an HDMI signal to the projector.  Also a look at the other side of the mirror.

This pile of media players also includes the sync control boxes.  A 6 conductor flat phone wire goes to each player from the sync box, which is fed by a designated "Master" player unit.  You can also see the USB thumb drives that are used to hold the media content and text program file that tells the player how to behave.