221 Camera Obscuras Fill Pneuhaus’ Immersive, Inflatable, Image-Capturing Installation

At first glance, the structure resembles a kind of elongated igloo or a giant, white snail. One one hand, it’s an immersive, pop-up room with a futuristic, bubble-like texture. It’s also a giant, walk-in camera (there are 221 lenses to be exact).

Premiering late last month at MODE Festival, a celebration of global photography, “Compound Camera 3” is the latest work by Pneuhaus, the Rhode Island-based studio known for its large-scale, architectural inflatables. Dozens of tiny cameras comprise the installation, which covers more than 700 square feet and invites visitors to walk around inside of a projection powered entirely by the sun. The images visible through the tiny apertures land on bulbous surfaces, and visitors can push on the soft material inside to distort what Pneuhaus describes as a “bug’s-eye view” of the sky and urban surroundings.

In our era of information, it’s impossible to describe Pneuhaus’ multi-lensed work without thinking about recent, crucial conversations about surveillance, especially when it comes to license plate readers and doorbell cameras that are tethered to enormous private data networks. In this case, though, the “information” is about being present. Nothing is recorded.

In “Compound Camera 3,” visitors step inside of a luminous viewing room, but there are no LED screens here; the sunlight simply illuminates everyday scenes through an essential analog method. Lenses pointing upward portray the sky across dozens of interior facets not unlike the structure of an insect’s eye. Those directed sideways show trees, buildings, and other people walking around. Everything appears multiplied, encouraging us to slow down and examine details more closely than we might if we were seeing the same scene just outside.

See more on Pneuhaus’ Instagram.

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