Swamp optical trance

2 lens-based installations suggest a connection between ecology, optics and magic. The installations seek to friction the categories of still and moving image while reinterpreting the swamp landscape. In ""Earth beamer II"" two slide projectors become microscopes that magnify and project a series of 24 seemingly still images onto the same surface. Instead of photographs, each slide frame contains a moss herbarium; a living, moist and changing micro-ecosystem. The superimposition of images creates new plant motifs, similar to a double exposure. This ""live projection"" is looped at 24 seconds per image, in contrast to the standard 24 frames per second of motion pictures. The second installation is named ""Dew Portal"". Due to their spherical shape and translucent quality, dewdrops are small lenses capable of converging light rays, focusing and even projecting an image. Each dewdrop is, in this sense, a cinematographic manifestation that projects the surrounding world. Dew portal expands this idea further into a sculptural and photographic exercise. A slide rests between a light table and a crystal sphere. The objects are arranged so that the image of the slide is only visible when viewed from above. The image that appears is a reflection of the sun on a vegetated pond; a fraction of the swamp that connects this work with ""Earth Beamer II"". https://vimeo.com/795678418