Week One Forum Response
Installation Art in the New Millennium exploring several interesting notions of spatial theory. One concept that intrigued me was De Oliveira’s take on the installation model. The introduction framed the miniature as both a real and hypothetical space, as the viewer may project potential reality on an otherwise imaginary environment. The audience’s imagination creates a future for the model; the paper cut-out tree will be planted, the painted walkways will be poured and leveled, the imaginary, quaint spaces of the miniature will be explored by actual human beings at some distant grand opening. Whether or not the hypothetical space will ever truly exist is irrelevant; the function of the model is to be magnified and made real in the mind of the viewer.
Conversely, Frank Halmans's series of miniature models, The bedrooms in which I still wake up (42), have a retroactive connection to reality. These rooms may or may not still exist in their full-scale form, but Halmans has preserved them in a spatial context that looks towards the future. They express a mournful nostalgia, as if Halmans is attempting to restore his former lives by making plans for a future that's already passed.
Two possible discussion questions: Is the miniature model installation? Does the immersive installation space have to be to scale?
