You Are Here is a site-specific installation conceived for the BMO Project Room that uses photography, computer 3-D software, and a 360 degree projection system developed by Luc Courchesne. This work enables visitors to travel in three dimensions in and outside the walls of the room—without taking a step.
Upon entry to the space, visitors see a series of panoramic images on the wall to the right. These act as a story board or preview of the virtual experience, offering views of different locations around BMO’s 68th floor and beyond into downtown Toronto’s streetscape. A hemispheric projection screen occupies the center of the space just above a mark on the floor indicating the viewing position.
Lifting and entering the screen, immersed visitors use a controller to detach themselves from the physical gallery space and explore a virtual 3D world that stretches beyond the room to proximate areas in all directions. Familiar at first, these spaces become increasingly abstract as visitors venture outward. Traveling through objects will take visitors to alternative spaces, and navigating out the window of the Project Room brings them into downtown Toronto streets and landmarks. Virtually present sitting on the window sill of the room, Courchesne acts as gatekeeper/facilitator. Through a process of questions and answers, he may be asked to give directions and operating instructions, to explain the work, or to briefly discuss his intentions.
With this installation, which is both classical in its form and radical in the viewing experience it offers, Courchesne uses the technologies he has developed to challenge the white cube (the gallery) and black box (video installations) that are typically used as contexts for modern and contemporary art.