2010-09-06

Drzach & Suchy -- Magic Shadows

DrzachSuchy.ch




*Drzach
architect, works in Basel
studied at ETH Zurich and at GSD Harvard University
worked in New York, Berlin, Zurich and Basel
combines art and design
creates furniture and portable display spaces
*Suchy
cryptographer, software engineer, works in Zurich
studied at ETH Zurich and at Carnegie Mellon University,
worked in Zurich, Pittsburgh PA, and New Brunswick NJ
experiments with holograms and Fourier transforms
Collected from: DrzachSuchy.ch

YouTube - shadow clouds

An introduction to shadow clouds.
For more info see http://DrzachSuchy.ch/shadow-cloud


Collected from: YouTube - shadow clouds

YouTube - thru religion


A spatial object by Drzach & Suchy, based on shadow clouds.
For more info see http://DrzachSuchy.ch/shadow-cloud


Collected from: YouTube - thru religion

The new materiality of shadows

Picture puzzles were used by artists as early as the middle ages, in order for example to convey a hidden message which is only revealed to the observer from a specific perspective – in other words the observer's position determines the nature of the perception.

Drzach & Suchy's artistic work is based on a further fundamental observation, which is independent of the point of vision of the observer: the shadow which is cast by a physical object is dependent on the intensity and location of the light source and the shape of the object.
A shadow casting panel by Drzach & Suchy: depending on the incidence of light we see either Le Corbusier or Mies van der Rohe.


Shadow cloud: how it works

[...]

The idea of shadow clouds can be summarized as follows: the shadow cast by flat, thin elements depends on their relation to the direction of illumination: elements perpendicular to illumination cast clear shadows, while the shadows of elements parallel to illumination are practically invisible. Moreover, the elements perpendicular to the illumination can be arbitrary shifted along the illumination without changing the overall shadow cast by all the elements. This allows for a random, cloud-like placement of elements in space.