DUS Architects in Amsterdam have created a project called Unlimited Urban Woods. It's a box that uses one tree and strategically-placed mirrors to create the illusion that one is standing in an infinite forest. For photos and a better description of the project click here.
5 comments:
Very cool! It's deceptive and says a lot about the human psyche, too. This made me wonder - Is the sense of being in a vast space valued more than reality? Equally valued? If we put a box like this in our homes, would it eliminate the need for us to view the real thing? I could carefully augment my tiny apartment with some mirrors, but would the known deception make me feel better or worse? I dunno...
Those questions get to the heart of the issue, I think. Maybe the sense of where we are is all we ever have, regardless of what truly 'is.' And maybe at a very real level we all exist in a state of self-deception?
In the end, I have no answers but rather another question: "What is the 'real' thing?" In the Matrix is a mirror image of a tree any less real than the thing itself?
But what about the "true" function of trees, of forests, of vast spaces studded with intertwining roots and systems coursing with life? Is their function merely to serve us, to trick our psyche into delicious deception? That would be their function if we lived in the Matrix, I suppose. But if not? A “true” forest produces oxygen, provides a home for creatures and nutrients for an even greater population. To disregard those functions of a "true" forest, THAT is getting to the heart of the human psyche itself: that we are inherently self-centered. Like children. The world revolves around us, or even, around 'me' the individual, and not that which surrounds and nourishes us. So we cut down the rainforests and create a hall of mirrors around a tree...is this commentary? Or is it truly just something that is intended to trick the eye and deceive the heart? Moreover, I find it interesting that, since it is an infinitely repeating mirror image of a cultured, artificial (in that it was planted by humans, in a spot where humans almost undoubtedly tore down it’s great ancestors to pave roads and set down cobblestones) tree, the 'forest' which surrounds it is equally boxed-in and symmetrical, much like the great fields of fruit bearing trees we cultivate to sustain our own needs—a cultured and artificial jungle.
You're not a tree-hugging pinko-commie are you, Jackie? Because what you just said makes too much sense.
Well, JB, I *DO* live in PDX....the damn hippies are rubbing off on me, evidently.
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