THE CUBE in the Web Portal Installation

"Web Portal" Installation and building of THE CUBE were made possible by a grant from MassDevelopment and ArtSpace Maynard.

Artist Stephanie Beattie’s video installation:
“Web Portal” “Patterns of communication in the physical space of connection”

"WEB PORTAL" was a multi-channel video projection collage that visualized the shape of communication on a doorway formed by the projection screens wrapped around a seven-foot Cube. Projected patterns emanating from natural and built environments are navigated by a crawling spider and the shadows of the participants who explore the threshold.

The artist created a shifting landscape using six projectors on mobile platforms. Composing live, she made a durational, multi-channel video of branching patterns of trees, wires, circuitry, information diagrams and a giant spider's web. Audio of modems crackling and the whining of facsimiles transmitting created an immersive multi-sensory experience.

The artist spent time with the Maynard Historical Society for images of Digital Equipment Corporation's early circuit diagrams and fiber optic and server diagrams.

The artist's installation created a portal to the past when Maynard manufactured the first computer terminals to connect to the Internet. Participants recognized the DEC circuitry and diagrams; many were moved to see them again and even more so as projected in an art installation.

The physical structures through which we access Internet technologies reflect the patterns of complexity in the natural world—illustrating tech's infrastructure mirroring natural patterns.

So goes the natural process of reusing the past as fertilizer to give life to the new.


Stephanie Beattie is a designer, editor, and researcher based in Brooklyn, New York. She uses interactive media and sound to illuminate the fundamental structures of social interaction and perception. www.lakeswholelakes.com
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“The Cube” is 6’8” square with an aluminum frame encased with front and reverse projection screens attached via Velcro.
A 360 Degree portable projection screen. It is an outdoor placemaking conceptual container for video, light and film performances. The design and building effort was a collaboration between Studio InSitu Architects and Zannah Noe. Working with the idea of place, the concept of an adaptable screen for site-specific installations was inspired by new media advances in projection mapping and immersive art.
The Cube offers artists an opportunity to play in its possibilities.

Made possible by a grant from MassDevelopment and ARtSpace Maynard.