Frame to Frame

Frame to Frame DATE - 1986 DISCIPLINE - Art MEDIUM – Panoramic film and kinetic sculpture STATUS – In development

DATE – 1986
DISCIPLINE – Art
MEDIUM – Panoramic film and kinetic sculpture
STATUS – In development

A five camera panoramic film that moves through downtown Toronto at the intersection of King and Bay that was shot in 1985. The piece is designed to be a kind of “time machine” as core sections of the video are designed to be re-shot in exactly the same locations a generation later to explore the progression of time in an urban environment. This project was funded with the help of two Canada Council Integrated Media grants in 1984 and 1985.

Displaced Perspectives

Displaced Perspectives DATE - 1986 DISCIPLINE - Art MEDIUM – Telepresence robotic installation STATUS – Displayed simultaneously in Toronto, Canada and Salerno, Italy

DATE – 1986
DISCIPLINE – Art
MEDIUM – Telepresence robotic installation
STATUS – Displayed simultaneously in Toronto, Canada and Salerno, Italy

Photography artist Graham Smith was born in Vancouver but he works in Toronto. His work in progress includes a Kinetic Time Machine which will photographically record environments over extended periods of time. The art I create is shaped by the environment in which I live. I see technology not as a tool but as a palette: video, robotics and kinetics are simply different colors ready to be mixed into a new work”.

Displaced Perspectives allows viewers to explore distant environments through the video eyes of a remotely controlled robot. It is a teleguidance system which will allow participants in Salerno or Paris to explore a site in Toronto by directing a small video camera mounted on a remotely-controlled robot, which transmits real-time digitized images via the Macintosh computer “MacVision” system.

“This ability to see, and control a machine, across the Atlantic is the most visible part of the piece, yet conceptually it is only a surface element. The true power of the piece lies in it’s definition of communication as an interactive explorative process which results in the construction of a 3-dimensional mental model. The robot uses the same scanning process people use when entering any new space; they look all over and build up a 3-dimensional model from many different perspectives. It is this definition of communication: many small pieces making up something greater than the whole, which lies at the heart of this piece” G. Smith).


Displaced Perspectives DATE - 1986 DISCIPLINE - Art MEDIUM – Telepresence robotic installation STATUS – Displayed simultaneously in Toronto, Canada and Salerno, Italy Displaced Perspectives DATE - 1986 DISCIPLINE - Art MEDIUM – Telepresence robotic installation STATUS – Displayed simultaneously in Toronto, Canada and Salerno, Italy