Abecedary

Interactive Sculptural Installation, 2005

Abecedary is an interactive sculptural installation and experiment in multi-dimensional typography, which explores where the boundary of recognizable form ends and abstraction begins. It was born of an effort to create three-dimensional typography, where recognizable letters of the Roman alphabet were reduced to their essential gestures, and translated into three-dimensional space. Suspended from above, the abstracted letters are free to rotate, responding to air currents from people’s presence in the installation space. Projected light casts the sculptures’ shadows onto the wall, which returns their physical form to two dimensions. Participants watch as unrecognizable shadows slowly rotate into familiar letters, prompting them to read a jumble of abstracted forms as recognizable symbols, or look for connections in the random assortment of shapes.

Projected three-dimensional computer renderings of other abstracted letter-forms are interspersed with the sculptures’ shadows on the wall. When viewers walk around the installation they cause these digital forms to turn abruptly, as if they were accidentally disturbed or responding to air currents. Participants first assume the digital models are also the shadows of physical forms, and try to locate the corresponding sculptures in the space. However, after failing to find their tangible counterpart, participants may realize that these forms are distinct from the other shadows on the wall, as their rendered appearance retains aspects of three-dimensionality that the shadows lack. These digital models lead viewers to question what is real and what is virtual, and whether this distinction really matters in our technologically-mediated world.

Role: Concept, fabrication, 3D modeling, installation. Programming assistance from Edrex Fontanilla.

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