“Metroscope” by Jiro Ishihara
Title:
- Metroscope
Artist(s) and People Involved:
Exhibiting Artist(s):
Symposium:
Venue(s):
Medium:
- Projected film and touch panel monitor
Artist Statement:
“metroscope” is an interactive installation that seeks to integrate the perceived space of the subway with the perceived space of the city and its inhabitants. It incorporates a projected film and a touch panel monitor with a map of the Tokyo subway, with a list of icons that identify each of the subway lines. This panel allows the audience to alter the projected film, which is a traveling shot (first-person point-of-view) of the land above ground that parallels the path of the subway. The images, undergoing DirectX processing, are rigorously framed and rapidly projected, paralleling the speed of the train.
However the images are not completely natural but rather ‘discretely bundled’ into frames, rather like a set of dominoes. Since the spectator does not have to follow the path of the subway but can veer off the line if he or she so chooses, the framed images provide a very ‘sharp’ image of its movements. (The vanishing point of the Image moves away from the center of the screen in response to the veering movement of the viewer). This allows the viewer to orient himself even as s/he moves away from the line of the subway. Needless to say, all interactions are done in real time.
