the ecology of perception

projection intérieure projection is an interactive installation by artists Marten Berkman and Baptise Bohelay that explores human presence within natural and manufactured landscapes. Experimenting with sensors, software programming, and 3D video, gallery dweller's movements appear as disembodied shadows cast against palpable, pristine landscapes. The use of technology as a vehicle for remembrance is both poetic and haunting, urging a timely meditation on how we occupy and impact wild expanses of land.

projection intérieure projection est une installation interactive par Marten Berkman et Baptiste Bohelay qui explore la présence humaine dans des paysages naturels ou industriels. En expérimentant avec des capteurs, de la programmation et des vidéos en 3D, les mouvements de la spectateur apparaissent comme des ombres sans corps projetées contre des paysages vierges. L'utilisation de la technologie comme véhicule pour le souvenir est a la fois poétic et envoutant, appelant a une méditation sur le temps notre impact sur des étendues sauvages de terre.

- Geneviève Gagnon, curator

projection intérieure projection - artist statement

Having worked with the long traditions of landscape photography, film, printmaking and photography, I have enjoyed the two dimensional vocabulary of light and dark, texture, form and composition to create poetic, emotive portraits of the land. But it was on one long walk on Ellesmere Island in 1990 that I desired to somehow reflect the very sense of presence in place, the very stones beneath my feet. At the time I considered the possibility of holography, but it was not until years later that I rediscovered stereo imaging. Since 2005 I have been working in stereo 3D imaging and installation. This has been an exciting palette for my reflections of places, remote and often disparate, which are temporally parallel to the manufactured spaces where we live.

Reflections of nature in my work are so often devoid of humans, and a certain aesthetic in our culture even demands human exclusion. But I question whether this only perpetuates the duality with the land, a duality which is at the heart of our current discord with the rest of nature. Using stereo 3D introduces an additional plane to our perception, where the two dimensional surface dissolves into the virtual presentation of tactile form. Even the process of viewing 3D introduces interactivity as we explore and discover virtual space from specific vantage points. But the viewer remains separate from the subject. I have wanted to have my work actually reflect the viewer in the landscape, to break down that barrier of separation from subject, to more accurately reflect our relationship with the land. 

It was a joy to meet Baptiste Bohelay, the first artist I met in the Yukon who exercised the tools of software programming and sensors to create interactive works. I have experimented with Max/MSP and Pure Data, but Baptiste's solid foundation in writing code and integrating interactivity with sound and image has opened the door to the interactivity I have desired in stereo 3D installation work. At the invitation to work collaboratively for the Edge gallery, we have embarked on a wonderful journey of combining skills and passions to create projection interieure projection. Not only is Baptiste a master of his craft, but he has a playfulness and poetic sensibility which make it a joy to work together. There is a beautiful contrast of low and high tech in our process, as we skijor through the woods between our respective cabin and studio to share S3D digital projections and interactive experiments. This artistic process itself reflects our ancient, first person relationship with the land, in tandem with the contemporary complex technologies it has been our nature to create. 

projection interieure projection is the fruit of our respective passions. I hope this work opens up new and playful ways to see the land, and pose questions about our place in it.

Yukon News: http://www.yukon-news.com/arts/virtual-treading-in-pristine-lands/

L’Aurore Boréale: http://auroreboreale.ca/entrez-dans-une-image-3d/

3D viewing options available after  commencement of video