First featured at Subliminal Transcriptions Installation, 2013 — The Black Box Theater, The Arts Center of the Capital Region, Troy, NY
Double Reflector is an installation that explores the dual nature of a thin sensitive reflective surface. A single vertical reflector—highly responsive to air, sound, and touch—is illuminated by two separate light sources. Each side of the surface projects its own image onto a corresponding screen, revealing real-time variations in texture, distortion, and form.
As the environment shifts around the reflector, it affects its topography, transforming the reflected light. Making the slightest change in pressure, movement, or temperature visible, translating atmospheric fluctuation into ephemeral visual form.
Designed by Yael Erel and exhibited in Subliminal Transcriptions, Projecting Topographies, Revealing Lightscapes, and Light Topographies, the project was originally developed with guidance from advisors Ted Krueger and Michael Oatman. Special thanks to Bill Bergman and the RPI Architecture School Fabrication Shop for their support.
Dimensions: 48″ × 42″ × 72″
Photography and videography by Michael Valiquette, Alvis Mosley, Ryan Jenkins, Jonas Braasch, Avner BenNatan, and Yael Erel.
featured in
Subliminal Transcriptions - 2013
Subliminal Transcriptions is an exhibition based on the amplification of minuscule environmental conditions that are generally overlooked, resulting in a transcription of the topography of the reflector into light drawings.
As the viewers enters the exhibit they can see the light drawings produced before witnessing the projection mechanism. As they enter deeper into the space, they are exposed to the mechanisms and can explore the light in the space with hand held screens.
The exhibition, which was hosted by the Arts Center of the Capital Region, was the conclusion of Erel's graduate research in architecture and light at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute School of Architecture.
Revealing Lightscapes - 2014
Revealing Lightscapes is an interactive light exhibition at The Museum of Innovation and Science in Schenectady, NY. The installation, primarily targeted to young viewers, explores the principles of reflection through interaction and play.
The exhibition reveals different micro topographies of reflective surfaces as projected light drawings. The exhibition is an immersive laboratory composed of elements at various scales, each one using a light source, a reflective surface, and a screen to magnify minuscule atmospheric conditions that are normally overlooked.
The exhibition is grounded in direct physical phenomena that challenges the liminal nature of our senses - though we understand that a surface contains events at a micro-scale which we cannot easily detect with our eyes, when they are transcribed through a simple act of reflection, they become tactile and otherworldly.
Projecting Topographies - 2014
Projecting Topographies reveals different micro topographies of reflective surfaces as projected light drawings. The exhibition is an immersive laboratory composed of elements at various scales, each one using a light source, a reflective surface, and a screen to magnify minuscule atmospheric conditions that are normally overlooked.
The exhibition is grounded in direct physical phenomena that challenges the liminal nature of our senses - though we understand that a surface contains events at a micro-scale which we cannot easily detect with our eyes, when they are transcribed through a simple act of reflection, they become tactile and otherworldly.
Light Topographies - 2017
Like entering a spatial microscope, micro topographies are revealed through a simple act of reflection.
This immersive exhibition is grounded in direct physical phenomena, challenging the limits of our perception. Although we understand that a surface contains micro-scale events we cannot easily detect with the naked eye, when they are transcribed through reflection they seem otherworldly and alive.
The exhibition uses light as a projectional drawing device at the scale of architecture. The light drawings are a system composed of a light source, reflector and the surface on which the drawings register, inextricably linking the drawing to its projection. Light and sound here interact similarly to how they would at the oceanside; their correlation too complex to follow but is readily perceived, addressing the multi-modal nature of human perception.
Light and sound are intertwined, drawing visitors into the wonder and complexity inherent in the seemingly simple patterns being transcribed.