Observatory

The Observatory is a portable tourist information kiosk created to reveal the stark contrast between the representation of cities and their actual form. It engages the media’s increasing effect on the perception and form of cities by allowing visitors to explore a virtual version of the city they are in. The form of the Observatory is adaptable and can be illuminated so that it takes on the form and image of the space where it is installed. Aluminum and resin panels interlock, slide, and rotate, to constitute the dynamic, adaptable walls of the Observatory. Similar to Magritte’s 1933 painting, The Human Condition, the Observatory is a representation of a part of the city juxtaposed directly onto the space it mimics.

Within the Observatory, four video projections seamlessly create a simulated environment that surrounds the tourist, and is controlled by his or her movement on the pressure-sensitive floor. The visitor can, as a result, explore a representation of a particular city without leaving the Observatory. By representing only certain aspects (real or unreal) of the city through projections of images found in postcards, travel magazines, and film, the Observatory is essentially a media-infused lens for observing the city. The sites in the city chosen by the visitor are recorded and a map is then produced with an itinerary for the tourist to follow outside the Observatory. By creating itineraries, the Observatory allows the visitor to juxtapose the virtual experience with a subsequent actual experience of the city and therefore allows tourists to trace the seams of reality and illusion. Since 2008 the Observatory was installed in various locations in the San Francisco Bay Area.