GRONINGEN MUSIC-VIDEO PAVILION
Location: Groningen, The Netherlands
Year: 1990
This
pavilion, a museum satellite for the 1990 Groningen City Festival, considers
the idea that new video technology, nurtured by the growing home video
industry, is revolutionizing the notion of the moving image, or, more
precisely, the very perception of the world.
The design is based on an analysis of the way a video image is produced. An electron beam sweeps across a screen, from left to right, filling in an image point by point. Beginning at the top, the beam first scans the odd-numbered lines (horizontal retrace).
It then flies back to the upper part of the screen in a chevron figure (the vertical retrace), and draws in the even-numbered lines (horizontal trace). When the beam reaches the right edge, it turns off as it moves to the starting point of the next time. During this “horizontal retrace,” it is not visible. The beam passes over the screen twice to produce a single full image, yet a complete image is never on the screen because the first lines disappear as the alternate lives are filled in.
The figure produces by the beam’s movement is that of two identical chevron lines running in parallel – horizontal trace and retrace – overlaid by a third, larger zigzagging line, the vertical retrace. Our project is based on this pattern, and focuses on the points (lines) of interference occurring between the three basic chevron figures.
A visitor to the pavilion follows a path analogous to that of the beam. Moving along the chevron path, one is constantly repositioned in the space. The visitor becomes part of the medium itself, passing in front of screens and crossing through images, shifting position to form images in different ways, and running interference.
The design is based on an analysis of the way a video image is produced. An electron beam sweeps across a screen, from left to right, filling in an image point by point. Beginning at the top, the beam first scans the odd-numbered lines (horizontal retrace).
It then flies back to the upper part of the screen in a chevron figure (the vertical retrace), and draws in the even-numbered lines (horizontal trace). When the beam reaches the right edge, it turns off as it moves to the starting point of the next time. During this “horizontal retrace,” it is not visible. The beam passes over the screen twice to produce a single full image, yet a complete image is never on the screen because the first lines disappear as the alternate lives are filled in.
The figure produces by the beam’s movement is that of two identical chevron lines running in parallel – horizontal trace and retrace – overlaid by a third, larger zigzagging line, the vertical retrace. Our project is based on this pattern, and focuses on the points (lines) of interference occurring between the three basic chevron figures.
A visitor to the pavilion follows a path analogous to that of the beam. Moving along the chevron path, one is constantly repositioned in the space. The visitor becomes part of the medium itself, passing in front of screens and crossing through images, shifting position to form images in different ways, and running interference.
Concept
Drawings
Model photos
Photos
