Dollhouse

A generic, cardboard dollhouse is brought to life by the projection of a narrative, pitting a hermetic box against the uncertainties of context and events. The materiality of cardboard—with its allusions to architectural models and homelessness—couples with the liminality of the projected light. The dollhouse is a canvas for the medium of darkness. Mechanically operable components (low-tech special effects) vie with the virtual scene in an inversion of representational translation, where actors filmed against a green screen are spliced with digitally crafted settings and scaled down to 1:12. The model performs as an operable section cut, allowing rooms to be revealed or concealed independently. This architectural device is operative within the narrative, selectively splaying open a section cut to allow both sides to visibly unfold through time. By this system many stories can be presented. A trial narrative subjects a garishly festooned house to a barrage of contextual conflicts, interfaced through a TV set and windows. Construction noises and the relocation of the house assault its interiority in an interplay between structures and events. Parallel stories in separate rooms are linked through this contextual drama. Rooms are highlighted individually to form a narrative promenade through a domestic world.

Course: Video Architecture, J-Term 2011
Instructor:Gaspar Libedinsky
Developed by: Douglas Jack, Sky Milner, Michelle Miller, Aviva Rubin, Dan Weissman

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