Curious Obsolescence
Aroussiak Gabrielian
2016
Major: Media Arts and Practice
PhD Program
Art Object
The rich array of artifacts in the Cassady Collecttion exhibit wide-ranging experimental methods of storytelling by artists re-interpreting Carroll’s tales. I chose the mutoscope as an-other interactive method of experiencing Carroll’s stories because of my training in cinema and because it is an antiquated form of filmic technology, suitable for the curious obsolescence of the card catalogue room.
When the box is opened, the viewer encounters Carroll’s quotation (in his handwriting): “Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end then stop.” Yet rather than discover a story with beginning and end, the mutoscope has neither. With a looping narrative, the labyrinth-like logic mirrors Carroll’s playful humor. While the image content pictures a fall down the rabbit hole into a whimsical land-scape below, the “reel” can be switched out of the mutoscope for any number of imaginary landscapes. The object thus becomes a portal into wonderland.
Motoscope image: httP://victorian-cinema.net/machines
Curious Obsolescence
Aroussiak Gabrielian
2016
Major: Media Arts and Practice
PhD Program
Art Object
Curious Obsolescence, In Situ
Aroussiak Gabrielian
2016
Major: Media Arts and Practice
PhD Program
Art Object
Curious Obsolescence, Artifact
Aroussiak Gabrielian
2016
Major: Media Arts and Practice
PhD Program
Art Object
Curious Obsolescence, Reel
Aroussiak Gabrielian
2016
Major: Media Arts and Practice
PhD Program
Art Object
Curious Obsolescence, Components
Aroussiak Gabrielian
2016
Major: Media Arts and Practice
PhD Program
Art Object
USC Libraries Wonderland Award Installations
2016
Alice in Dohenyland, Sara Fenton
Cloudsmoke, Jose Medina
Curious Obsolescence, Aroussiak Gabrielian
Alice's Adventures Through the Stacks, Genevieve Parkes
Aroussiak Gabrielian
Aroussiak Gabrielian
2016
Major: Media Arts and Practice
PhD Program
Art Object
The rich array of artifacts in the Cassady Collection exhibit wide-ranging experimental methods of storytelling by artists re-interpreting Carroll’s tales. I chose the mutoscope as an-other interactive method of experiencing Carroll’s stories because of my training in cinema and because it is an antiquated form of film-ic technology, suitable for the curious obsolescence of the card catalogue room.
When the box is opened, the viewer encounters Carroll’s quotation (in his handwriting): “Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end then stop.” Yet rather than discover a story with beginning and end, the mutoscope has neither. With a looping narrative, the labyrinth-like logic mirrors Carroll’s playful humor. While the image content pictures a fall down the rabbit hole into a whimsical land-scape below, the “reel” can be switched out of the mutoscope for any number of imaginary landscapes. The object thus becomes a portal into wonderland.