Refraction (2010-2011)
8 Lenticular panels 47" x 32"
Custom software animation, 4 channel sound multimedia projection




"Refraction" explores the cinematic narrative of the photographic image in a non-electronic form, the lenticular medium, a process in which two or more images can be seen sequentially simply through the changing of the observer’s viewing perspective.

The title "Refraction” refers to the physical properties of waves and the directional change they undergo when passing from one medium to another, as for instance, a light beam redirected as it moves from air into water. For this project, refraction has both literal and metaphoric relevance. Literal in that the lenticular image changes depending on where we stand in front of it. It is metaphorical as images’ meanings shift depending on the perspective each viewer brings to interpreting of them.

The themes of the project revolve around the perception of images, referencing in varying degrees cinematic moments and sequences related to visual cultural consciousness that have been a part of the media generation raised since the 1960’s. In the way that the Russian psychologist Luria’s patient S, suffering from hypermnesia, would register his experiences in memory by creating and storing a sequences of pictures in his mind, films such as Alphaville, Contempt, L’Année Dernière a Marienbad, Blow-up, l’Avventura, 8 ½, l’Eclisse, Woman in the Dunes, Blade Runner, Alien, 2001, Model Shop and many others, have imprinted a consciousness of the optical-mechanical image and its relation to the social sphere at a time of cultural re-invention. This project explores the blurring between the desire to see, imposing onto what one is seeing, and the role of technologies by which one learns to see. By re-formulating photographs through the technology of the multi-layered lenticular image, this project explores how the integrity of the still-image and the multilayered sequence can simultaneously co-exist.