Transdimensional Test Card

Augmented scenography, in vintage (1960's) TV

Description

Artist: Nourathar Studio

Authors: Caen Botto & Marta Rupérez

Title: Transdimensional Test Card

Date: 2017

Medium: Augmented reality; mixed media

Dimensions: 41 (h) x 57 (w) x 38 (d) cm

Loop duration: 2'27

Edition: unique within a series of 5

Private collections (Greece, Germany, US, Canada, Spain)

Concept

Transdimensional Test Card uses a vintage (1960s) TV set, re-tuned into an augmented, multidimensional test pattern. It presents an exploration into 3D compositions, with various layers of refraction, diffraction and reflection. The time dimension is also included through the rhythmic sense of the animated composition, together with the evocation of traveling back in time.

On one hand, the piece is a tribute to the obsolete technology it uses; on the other, it draws attention to the contrast between old and new media: a contemporary LCD screen is contained within an older version of a similar technology (valve TV set).

The title further supports this continuity and rupture between old and new technologies: the familiar test pattern, omnipresent in old TV sets, becomes unfamiliar as it achieves a new meaning and jumps out at the viewer in this multi-layered composition

This piece differs from other works in the series in that the magic trick – the light source - is not hidden; it becomes instead a central part of the composition through the continuity in space of the light it emits.