From Here, 2007

Dallas developer, Billingsley Company, commissioned a large-scale interactive work, entitled, From Here, for the entrance of their One Arts Plaza building. One Arts Plaza is situated in the heart of Dallas’ Arts District in Texas. The building is located on the museum campus opposite the Dallas Museum of Art.

 

This commission presents Schatz with an opportunity to advance his explorations in memory and generative video art. From Here experiments with how reality is defined. How does seeing an image of oneself on-screen affect memories of an event? While standing between the two walls, viewers will see themselves on both screens. Viewers then see themselves juxtaposed with video memories. Each is unique to each screen’s perspective on the past. At this point the viewers and the artwork, From Here, enter into a feedback loop. Whereby the works and viewers are each developing and affecting the others’ memories of that point in time.

This installation, focuses on the phenomenon of how multiple viewers in the same space or time can come away with specific memories. Two large video walls face the entrance to the building. Each video wall pulls from video files recording video captured via high-definition camera. They began recording at the same time and will continue to record together until the piece finishes. Eventually, each computer will establish their own unique memory of that space over the next eight years. These computers stand as witnesses to the flow of people through this space, creating the final artwork via their archive. Overlapping their memories with different perspectives and angles.

My City is another generative video installation by Lincoln Schatz. This installation, at the Blackstone Hotel, takes another look at the relationships between buildings and new media art.