This composite was assembled only on Sundays when the location was mostly deserted. Throughout the winter months the calligraphic dynamics of ice and snow are being revealed. Like layers of a palimpsest, the traces of human activity are being written and erased over and over again. In April 2007, the camera was removed before the image could be completed.

 "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."

 

Exhibition view: Webcam Works -solo exhibition at Cabrillo Gallery in Aptos, California.