Photo Installation by Daniel Canogar

One of the most interesting installation pieces of the “Manchester Urban Screens trip” was the photo-installation created by Daniel Canogar-which is a part of the exhibition in the corner house.
The artist by using a multi-projection system with fiber optic cables creates a live canvas on the walls. The different pictures are thus combined in a collage made from light images, eliminating the photographic frame and submerging the spectator into the image itself.
Watching the piece from a distance, you could identify a high-tech instalation, reminding one of the expressionistic machines from Metropolis' futuristic dystopia. GGetting closer one is temporarily confused - I kept expecting some kind of interaction by moving the projectors or using my hands' shadow to hide part of the imagery. After a few failed attempts, I finally realized the artists intention - A photograph that will embrace its spectator and utilize the space.
I got a magical feeling from looking in that installation - although others seemed to think of it as frustrating and pointless since it was not interactive by touch. And that is one of the problems that a public interaction might have; the artist has to predict the user's responses on to his piece. Or, as taught in our first lecture, creators must become specators themselves and live the experience of their piece in order to make it effective and communicative. But the users in a public installation vary in a huge range.
After some research on the artist’s projects, I found out that this one was one of his smallest installations. He plays with space creating giant installations by utilizing the aforementioned technique. The size might be a misleading aspect in this case. Watching some pictures of other installations from his website (http://www.danielcanogar.com/page_in/index.html), I am sure that an installation such as that, placed in a big room, using projections from a large amount of space and the walls would be much more effective to the audience and would communicate successfuly the artist's feelings.

One of my favourite pieces from his other works is named Sentience and is shown in the picture below. A live hand photo collage created by Canogar, Sentience explores the paradox of the desire to touch others through the intagible medium of the projection as stated in the artist's website.