Macroscope

Panoramic image of a neighbour's garden, collated from all perspectives from the neighbourhood onto it

In London, having a private garden does not always offer much privacy, with the visual reach of neighbours extending beyond the garden wall. Macroscope focuses on this voyeuristic tendency, magnifying it by offering a panoramic view of one man’s garden from his neighbours’ windows. Macroscope was commissioned by Parabola for Tempered Ground at the Museum of Garden History in 2004. The work is an installation housed within the guts of a pair of freestanding military binoculars. Combining optical hardware with computer-controlled panoramic imagery, the programme renders images according to the user’s movement. The subject held within the binoculars’ site is the garden of Cotterrell’s neighbour, constructed from the combined images taken from all the houses in the neighbourhood that look into the space. The work is ambiguous, satisfying basic voyeuristic tendencies, but suggesting an omnipresent position which is confronting and uncomfortable.

Materials:

Military Binoculars, TFT Screens, Apple Computer

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