KIM COLEMAN

Staged (2010)

 

Kim Coleman and Jenny Hogarth. 

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An EXPO project commissioned by Edinburgh Art Festival and produced by Collective.

 

Networked pan tilt and zoom CCTV cameras. Projected live and pre-recorded video, William Playfair City Observatory, Edinburgh. 

 

A temporary public installation, Staged was a site-specific work in the heart of Edinburgh. Silent live footage from cameras placed around the city was projected around the walls of the William Henry Playfair designed astronomical City Observatory, built in 1776. The architectural interior functioned as a digital camera obscura or magic lantern, representing the fabric of the city as a series of seductive close-ups. Between shots the cameras simultaneously 'danced' simultaneously scanning their surroundings, zooming out and in, briefly revealing the context of their location before finally zooming back in on the minutiae of the materials of the city. 

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Pale Blue Dots: Notes on a Camera Obscura  - text to accompany the exhibition, written by Francis McKee

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