Saccadascopoeia

[elfs]

Saccadascopoeia

This is one of my favorite public art installations. It's in the Seattle Bus Tunnel underneath Benaroya Hall, the city's main symphony hall. It's a black wall with vertical strips of LED's that flicker, seemingly at random.

For years, when I walked past it, I thought it was trying to tell me something. The name wasn't enough of a giveaway, although I know what the saccades are, "quick, simultaneous movements of both eyes in the same direction." What we see isn't what's coming in through the eye, but a mosaic of millisecond-by-millisecond images collected as the eye flickers back and forth.

I finally figured it out. Images are being dragged across the narrow vertical strip. If you move your eyes horizontally fast enough, you can see the images.

You can simulate the effect with a camera.

Ships and Octopi

I've seen lots of things over the years: Money. Airplanes. Presidents. Today, it's ships and octopi, leaving those who don't get it with a vague sense of impending doom.

I approve.

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

NEAT! I never knew.

[nbarnes.livejournal.com]

Really? I got this the first time I passed it by. I thought it was obvious what was going on. I wonder how it is that it was very clear to me, but others don't see it until it's pointed out, what it is about the eyes or the visual cortex that picks it up or doesn't.

[m-danson.livejournal.com]

That's cool.