6 – 30 April 2011
Mebane Gallery, Goldsmith Hall

University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture

Life and construction on a remote Canadian island inspired this exhibit curated by Herb Ennsand Kevin Alter. The island's essential atmospheres and Enns’ experiences with the Experimental Buildings at Shoal Lake are recreated in the school's Mebane Gallery. Audio samples and video images create a fully-immersive experience of the place, addressing our synesthetic capacity to combine sight, sound, and movement into a dense perceptual encounter.

The installation conveys a complex and ever-changing scene, challenging the observer to construct a personal and complex image drawn from an array of visual, aural, and kinetic inputs. Projections are augmented by the soundscape — choral music based on ethereal overtones that emphasize the emotive experience and a piece for eight wind instruments that alludes to the constant presence of wind on the island. The orchestration of subtle and complex perceptual inputs are intended to create an experience of transfiguration that has, at its genesis, the space and life of the Experimental Buildings at Shoal Lake at a scale of 1 to 1.