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Revised Maps of the Present

“Revised Maps of the Present” is a multi-dimensional installation. Step into a walk through oil painting, with flashing lights, sounds, and video projections. Watch what appears to be a train station break apart into several interconnected realities. As you move throughout the piece, the layers of time and space disconnect, unfolding into a labyrinth of shifting angles, hidden spatial dimensions and alternate versions of the present. It is like experiencing the world from several points-of-view at once, stretching through a kaleidoscopic playground where perception meets imagination.

The first incarnation opened at the Museum of Art and History in Lancaster and the A+D Design Museum in Los Angeles. The project will continue to expand with new added rooms and features, and will be transported to other exhibitions around the world. The goal is to create a traveling public display that inspires people to think about the nature of reality and consider many possible interpretations, visualizing ideas of modern physics, the theory of mind and the psychology of perception.


The installation consists of three rooms that zigzag though an interpretive city, opening a gateway into a panoramic train ride where 2D meets 3D. In the first room, the walls, floor and ceiling are painted. From one spot, the perspective aligns realistically, but as you walk inside, the angles shift into cubism. Flashing city lights sync with sounds, rhythmically breathing on and off. In the second room, 3D sculpted figures sit next to 2D painted figures. Viewers can sit in an empty seat to become a part of the train; the perfect photo opp. The final room is a video theater where giant pigeons rule the sky. We are taken out of the industrialized world and shrunken down to a vulnerable size, seeing the magnificence of common birds from a worm’s eye perspective.

“Revised Maps of the Present” is a fully immersive environment where conventional human logic doesn’t function. It forces viewers to abandoned their mental filters and reexamine the seemingly mundane aspects of the physical world. The underlining theme is universal understanding, taking in the worldview of others and blurring the line between personal and collective experience. It is designed to evoke empathy and a general curiosity of how and why things work. If we could learn to see outside of our own limited perspective of reality, we could not only expand our mental universe, but the universe itself; and understand the world on a much deeper, multi-dimensional level.