[Image: Jenniches' SPAN 1 (2007-2009). Digital Lightjet print, 67.5" x 93.5"] Mechanics of the Imagination :: November 3-27, 2010 :: Opening: November 5, 6:00 - 8:00 pm :: Prescott College Art Gallery (Sam Hill Warehouse), 232 N. Granite Street, Prescott, Arizona.

Isabelle Jenniches’ Mike O’ Callaghan - Pat Tillman Bridge, Hoover Dam, Nevada: Two webcams are mounted on either side of the Colorado River to monitor construction of a suspension bridge as part of the Hoover Dam Bypass Project. The robotic camera on the Nevada side of the Colorado River has an extreme range of motion that allows for views deep into Black Canyon and across to Sugarloaf Mountain.

“My fascination for live cameras on the Internet -webcams -began over a decade ago. I’ve witnessed this technology evolve from tiny grainy pictures to high resolution imagery, and from rarity to ubiquity. I’ve used webcams in theatre, online performances and photographic series, and most recently to create monumental composite images. Many miles away from the actual location yet connected via the Internet, I direct robotic webcams to scan the picture plane bit by bit. Over the course of several months or even years, I capture thousands of still images, and in a tedious manual process stitch them together into a panorama of great complexity and detail. This process of assembly uses a visual grammar borrowed from cinema, such as repetition, montage and manipulation of time. Showing natural and man-made elements alike, the composite inadvertently compiles a map of the location’s ecosystem and socio-economic demographics. Although each individual webcam image is a true photographic representation of one instant in time and space, however mundane, the sum of their arrangement has a spectacular effect. The result reveals the passage of time and develops its own narrative logic, offering a fictive yet hyper-realistic portrait of a place.”

View live webcam.

Artists include: Kyle Carpenter, Robert Davis, Edie Dillon, Bandhu Scott Dunham, Amelia Currier-Dworkin, Isabelle Jenniches, Michael May, Maria Michails, Jeff Mickey, Joseph Morris and Marilyn Murphy.