Participating Artists: Ingrid Lahti Piper O'Neill Eden Rivers Barbara De Pirro Ken Turner Miguel Edwards John Henry Wooten IV Anette Lusher Sylwia Tur Julie Fisco Julie Lindell Sponsored by: Center on Contemporary Art Carkeek Park Advisory Council Seattle Parks and Recreation Associated Recreational Council Supported by: QFC Piper's Creek Nursery		Site 5: Big Camera Group Seattle, Washington Camera Obscura: recycled & re-imagined plastic bags, wrapped & woven onto a tree snag. 2010 The Camera Obscura is an interactive piece of functional sculpture. It is primarily a one-person occupancy theatre of sublime imagery, embodying the intersection of history, science, art and entertainment. The Camera Obscura is to be used as a viewing room allowing the spectator to see the world in a new and different light. The experience will redefine the viewer’s relationship with the landscape. In the most basic terms the Camera Obscura is a wooden cabinet with a side-door. The Camera Obscura is comprised of two main parts, the viewing chamber and the lens housing. The viewing chamber is made of plywood and reinforced with metal framing. The dimensions of are 4ft x 2.5ft x 5.5ft. The lens housing is about 10 in x 6 in x 10in in its dimensions containing a lens and mirror. Inside the theatre cabinet is a chair and table/screen. The table/screen will function for all three aspects of light projection. The table/screen will work as a viewing surface for the projected image; it will work as a drawing table for image tracing and lastly it will be the chassis for any film or light sensitive paper. It is ironic that the ultimate role of an artist may well be to create a world where all people are artists and by doing so endanger their own livelihood. The temptation to retrain the way people see should be so great that its shadow fully obscures any caution towards that end. It is not enough to tell show someone what you see but to teach them to see what you see. If it is the role of sculpture to interact and change the space it exists in, then the Camera Obscura is a subtle and wondrous thing. The Camera Obscura is an interactive piece of functional sculpture. It is primarily a one-person occupancy theatre of sublime imagery, embodying the intersection of history, science, art and entertainment. The Camera Obscura is to be used as a viewing room allowing the spectator to see the world in a new and different light. At the very least the experience will redefine the viewer’s relationship with the immediate landscape. Additionally, one can hope that the concepts of ocular science, the long pre-history of the modern-day camera and having fun will be enriched. It is this enrichment that is the crux of the Camera Obscura. The sculpture that is aspired to is not the one made of wood, glass and metal but one made of light and the esoteric connection between seeing and understanding. It is too easy to ignore what is in front of your eyes but surly it is not too difficult to change that.