The Compound Camera is a twenty-foot inflatable installation composed of 109 pinhole cameras, each of which projects a slightly differ- ent view of the surrounding environment onto its interior surface. The structure’s flexible fabric invites visitors to push on and distort the projected images, allowing them to play with the fundamental properties of light, optics, and vision in a tangible way. In our increasingly digital world, the Compound Camera offers an analogue perspective; it reminds us that relatively simple construction methods and old technologies can continue to profoundly impact how we perceive our surroundings.

Much of the inspiration for this piece comes from the biology underlying human perception. Many people don’t realize that at any given moment we can only see a two-dimensional representation of whatever is in front of us. It is only after our brains stitch together multiple images from different perspectives that we perceive our surroundings to be three-dimensional. The Compound Camera puts many of these perspectives on a single surface, revealing the multi-layered nature of vision and challenging visitors’ perception of their world. Its pneumatic flexibility simultaneously introduces an element of play into this experience, allowing visitors to tangibly tap into their own curiosity while facilitating an exploration of the fundamental properties of light and optics.