Almost Home ©1998

A video installation with three channels of video and audio

Based upon the memories and dreams we associate with our past, present and future homes, Almost Home is a triptych of large-scale projections showing miniature, handmade houses. Made by children, each house grows in scale and focus, then retreats in slow motion movement as it fades out of the picture plane, metamorphosing into a different house. The sound of crickets, unique to each house, gathers intensity as the house approaches. Each house and its accompanying cricket ambiance is tuned to a different note on the harmonic scale, creating a virtual symphony when the three channels of audio and video are played together.

When the house reaches its peak in size and focus within the frame, the intensity of the sound and the life-size enormity of the handmade house creates a visceral impact upon the viewer which can be felt bodily.

There are three houses per video channel, or nine houses total. Each channel is timed slightly differently, so that the installation is continually evolving and different juxtapositions of houses and cricket sounds appear throughout the day. Conceptually the work focuses upon the home as a locus for memory, expectation and metamorphosis, and addresses notions of childhood idealism, variation within sameness, miniature and gigantic, and fantasy and reality.

Installation Components:
--Hardware: Three LCD video projectors, three DVD players and discs,
three pair of speakers.
--Dimensions variable. Installation can be installed with a minimum total
projected width of 18 feet to a maximum width of 36 feet (including all three
channels of video projected side-by-side on one wall)
--Installation running time: continually evolving loop