Main Room
The main room of the installation is aproximately 15 feet by 10 feet with four smaller rooms aproximately 7 feet by 5 feet. 2 rooms to the south, 2 rooms to the north. The west and east walls of the room each contained a large plate glass windows. In the West wall hangs the bride section of Duchamps Large Glass printed on clear acetate. The East wall has a rear-projected animation of the Bachelor section of the Glass. Near the entrance of each of the 4 smaller rooms is a view-master stereo viewing station.

| room A | rooms B & C | room D | Stereo pairs | Project text|
room diagram The main area contains several mounted stereo viewing devices. these devices (view masters, Stereopticons) contain collages of Stereo Photographs, found stereo images, and computer generated 3-D models. The subject matter is related to Duchamp's work by referring to and borrowing from imagery contained within the large glass and related works. By working with digital image processing techniques, a unique form of image compiling is created. The fascination I share with Duchamp and many of his contemporaries with the relationship between the machine and mankind is the main focus of this image series. One rather succinct explanation of the intention of The Large Glass is that " all feelings, emotions and sensations connected with the act of physical love would be translated in terms of mechanics, physics, and optics...with a typical tongue in cheek sense of humour"2 . This of course barely touches on the full complexity of the piece, but starts to explain some of the intent.


The stereo image series further explores man/machine relationships by juxtaposing classical nude studies with industrial factory scenes. This approach intends to literalize some of the bride/bachelor metaphors suggested by Duchamp in The Large Glass. The use of stereo further heightens the illusion of "reality" within these "artificial environments" Duchamp himself liberalized many Large Glass metaphors with his "Etant Donnes" (which depicts a "bride stripped bare") in a 3-D environment. The "Etant Donnes" requires the viewers to look through two holes in a large wooden door to reveal a rather shocking assemblage. The effect of looking through the holes is almost identical to that of looking through a stereoscope. Duchamp's use of metaphor, often extremely obscure, was a device to challenge his audience not only to explore the meaning ofthe metaphor, but also as a comment on art and the "art world." His rejection of the narrative and embracement of the ironic, partly mirrored the broader movements of dada and surrealism, as they, too, rejected the comfortable banality that the art world had become.
To take Duchamp's work seventy years later and translate using the tool of the computer now not only comments on computers and their ability to re-present and precisely copy, but also places Duchamp's work in a relevant contemporary context. This work juxtaposes ironies within Duchamp's works along side of cliché' computer generated imagery. Within the context of new technologies, art has now refound some of the same safe trappings that Duchamp challenged in the early part of this century. Suddenly programs such as Photoshop give any computer user the chance to create a beautiful (even retinal!) work of art. A chance that without the computer the non-artist may never have found. Therefore it's an empowering tool of art, but conversely, it has the possibility to flood the world with slick, yet, perhaps, meaningless art.

Erratum Musical

The Medium Glass

The computer is the medium (and the glass). Duchamp's choice of glass and other non-traditional materials as a medium was an attempt to break from the confines of traditional painting. The computer facilitates many potential breaks from past media through its ability to manipulate information in multiple ways . While breaks are attempted, more often than not, New media become imitators of their predecessors before finding a truly unique mode of expression. The computer animations which will be viewed on two monitors corresponding to the panes of The Large Glass. The Use of 3-D and 2-D animation and modeling will carry through on some of the intended and described movements from The Large Glass notes. It is within the process of creating this animation that a some new mode of expression might be discovered.

The end result will be to perhaps challenge general notions of spatial representation. The attempt to visualize the 4th dimension is intriguing, yet it could never truly be realized in the 3 dimensional world we live in. Like the age old attempt to invent a perpetual motion machine, it is an attempt to attain the impossible.

 |Duchamp home page|The Stereo pairs can be seen actual size here|