Camera Obscura
Franklin
Pierce College theater professor Robert Lawson has created a new exhibit
at the Historical Society, the fascinating Camera Obscura. The
Camera is a room-sized pinhole camera that projects a moving image of
the comings and goings on Grove Street onto a curved wall in a darkened
room. The camera is installed in the room that used to house the Society’s
archives.
The camera is created using a small hole or aperture to allow light to
enter the room. The light passing through the aperture projects the image
upside down and backward onto the wall.
One visitor said, “Wow, it is a wonderful experience. It makes you want to
stay and watch all day!”
Lawson’s exhibit also features a display on the way the eye works and
interactive set-ups of a camera lucida and an Albertian grid,
devices used by artists to render naturalistic images.
Inspired by David Hockney’s book, Secret Knowledge, Lawson created
a rudimentary version of the Camera at Franklin Pierce last spring.
On sabbatical this fall, Lawson sought a downtown Peterborough location to
create a full-size Camera that would be open to the public. The
Historical Society’s recent archive move opened up a perfect space for the
project.
Admission to the Camera is free. A special phone line is set up
with a daily update of open hours. Call 371-9025 for current hours.
The
Camera Obscura project will continue through January 2003.
September 2002
BACK
