Particular Heights 2.0

A participatory installation soars to great heights on the Museum lawn

A swing set, an LED counter, and a web camera: all that is missing is the audience to bring the ensemble to life. Stationed on the front courtyard of the NBMAA, Particular Heights 2.0 transforms the viewer into a participant, inviting him or her to swing on the counting swing – “counting because the swing acts as a record-keeper of its own use.

As the swing reaches a particular height, several operations are triggered. First, one digit is added to the LED counter affixed to the swing, which over time collects a quantitative documentation of the number of accumulated swings. Secondly, a webcam will capture a snapshot of the person in flight and then feed it as a series of stills to a monitor in the Gallery. The resulting images will be strung together into a loop as an experiment in stop- motion animation.

Particular Heights 2.0 is a collaboration between artists Paul Theriault and Siebren Versteeg, who have been recognized both nationally and abroad for their multi-media, technologically-savvy installations and sculptures. Together, New Haven/Brooklyn-based Theriault, and Versteeg, who currently lives and works in New York City, construct a work that examines the idea of a recycled image, where an object is physically constructed, photographed, and subsequently digitized.