Framed Perceptions: An Installation by Charity Melloy

This installation discusses the ways in which architectural apertures have the ability to alter and control a viewer’s perception. In an age when our perception and knowledge of events are largely mediated by screens, our technologies—analogue or digital—have the capacity to establish or diminish our trust in the images and information passed through them.

Architecture always operates as media. In some cases, architecture serves as a medium that contains another, as with the Gilo Wall in Jerusalem where a landscape mural hides an “ugly” truth while simultaenously reminding citizens of their history as an illusion. In other cases, media act as correlates of architecture. Historian Anne Friedberg observed this phenomenon in The Virtual Window, noting that in the 20th century the world of photography and cinematography performed on the basis of the architectural window but provided a greater experience and range of information. In these realms, artists conveyed messages and statements to evoke emotion and spark imagination.

This installation addresses these considerations, exploring what a space was, what it is now, and what it could be depending on alternate views on reality determined by architectural media operations.

Course: ARC599: On Seeing and Being
Instructor: Dr. Emine Seda Kayim