posted on March 20: Media artist mixes unusual places with multimedia

Altering the usual relationship between artist and spectator in his new video, Museum Mile, Robert Hamilton – media artist and assistant professor of multimedia – has made thousands of New York gallery goers the subjects rather than appraisers of his work.

Using a manic flip book technique, he has created a movie from countless digital photographs of visitors taken at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In this fascinating study of people and space, the jerky quality of the protagonists' movements (reminiscent of old black and white movies) contrast with the ultra sharp quality of the images. And when the camera focuses on someone standing still in a mass of moving people, the effect is one of calm at the eye of a storm.

“I like watching people watching things,” says Hamilton, whose works range from enormous panoramic photo montages to animation, “and I often reflect what it is to have a private moment in a public place.”

Another common theme is the way people move through space, whether that space is the well-ordered galleries of Museum Mile or the frenetic “man-made media canyon” of Times Square, subject of another of Hamilton's high-tech flip book videos.

“I tried to capture the chaos. The two movies are a comparison of spacing, and how people move through that space. In a museum everything is controlled. In Times Square nothing is controlled.”

The visual overload of Times Square gave Hamilton the impression of a physical encounter of the American public with their mass media, coming face to face with something that is usually experienced in the intimate confines of their home.

Inspiration for the project came from the evening ritual he experienced in Friesland in the Netherlands.

It's common to go for a walk there and it's expected you'll look in your neighbours' windows. No need to take a quick peek out of the corner of your eye – people leave the drapes open on purpose.

“It's a kind of community level visual communication that's existed for 1000 years,” Hamilton said. “It was a bit of shock for me at first to witness that kind of openness, coming from North America where people tend to hide away, and you're not sure if anyone's home. It breaks the public/private barrier.”

Hamilton admits he is not entirely sure how the interactive project will develop or where it will end up. And that, he says, is the great thing about grants from bodies like the Canada Council and the Ontario Arts Council (from whom he's also received funding this year for a video project).

“They allow artists time to focus on their craft, to make something really good. It's an exciting process.”

(The image is a still taken from Hamilton's video on Times Square.)