UNDER[GALLERY]
In my Underground Spatialities Studio class, we spent the semester researching, exploring, and recording various underground spaces (the Rice University steam tunnels, Natural Bridge Caverns, and Houston Cistern) in preparation for building an art installation to reinterpret and share what we had learned and experienced about the underground with the Rice community.
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My entire class collaborated on this final exhibit, a one-night installation entitled the UNDER[GALLERY] held in the Moody Center for the Arts. The students worked in various teams (space, sound, and visual / digital) to design and build the final exhibit.
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We designed a maze containing various chambers highlighting different representations and interactions of the underground, including videos, virtual reality, sculpture, interactivity, and meditation. This was done to maximize the space we were given and create the feeling of a cramped and sprawling underground space, not unlike networks of caves or tunnels. The walls were created by hanging 20-foot-tall white plastic sheets off a network of steel struts augmented by PVC pipes attached to the ceiling. We turned out the lights, leaving only the lights of the projections on the walls to provide illumination, furthering the feeling of being in a dark subterranean space. As visitors traversed these passageways, they rounded corners to a whole host of surprises and new ways to experience our interpretation of the underground.
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