Girona Octopi     2016, synthetic inkjet print, interactive crank box, live video, 18'x18'

My earliest memory of being captivated by an animal in motion was formed at the age of 14 while snorkeling off the coast of Spain. I reached out to hold on to an underwater rock and nearly touched a well-camouflaged octopus. It darted away, leaving a cloud of ink in its wake. The complex, compound motion of its tentacles mixed with the ink-cloud filled me with wonder and fascination. With Girona Octopi I attempt to recreate these emotions for the public. Viewers enter the imagery, see an aerial view of themselves in the projection, and activate the animation by turning a small crank (that also activates a soundtrack of a traditional Spanish melody). The crank box evokes Eadweard Muybridge's zoopraxiscope- a device he invented to project his own studies of animals in motion. In this video, the piece is installed at the Aurora Picture Show in Houston, TX. Aurora commissioned this work and the UMBC Imaging Research Center funded the technology development. Mark Murnane was the system's engineer.