Performative Space Exploration

This scene in Atonement uses montage to create an intimate, emotional connection between two characters. Cutting between two places at the same moment in time, the camera makes use of soft daylight, foreground interference (dust, smoke, and reflections), and close ups, inviting the audience into a private moment. The Cowles Center's sidewalk is not exactly analogous to this scene, but rather it subverts the idea of intimacy by looking for it on a city sidewalk. Photographed using devices from the scene, light, reflections/transparencies, and depicting intimacy were explored. The result is a moment between to strangers; uncomfortable, but cinematic.

Performative Space

This project was designed to explore cinema as a conceptual construct and apply our discoveries onto a public space. One Hour Photo is based on an emotionally isolated photo clerk who intervenes in the lives of his customers. The movie uses symmetrical, slow, rhythmic montage and a bright, low-contrast lighting scheme and color palette to dehumanize the central character. I chose the 35W bridge because its palette, lighting, symmetry and calculated nature mirror the movie well. My exploration and intervention revealed that the introduction of active people heightened the awareness of the dehumanizing qualities of the space.