PULSE

Try to make sense out of the human experience

By David Wildman, Globe Correspondent, 8/26/2001

Whether you take it on the simplest level - a collection of text and slow scrolling photographic imagery - or analyze it in terms
of contemporary economics and politics, the new exhibit at The Gallery ... Green Street provides both an interesting diversion
for passersby and something to think about.

The installation, titled ''Real a digital installation,'' is a vast collection of still video shots taken by former New Zealander (now
Boston resident) Aaron Fry and Australian Sally McLaughlin. The two met as teachers at Waikato Polytechnic College in New
Zealand where they hatched their plan to create an exhibit that would encompass images of ordinary everyday environments
that are all under some sort of unseen control.

The images are viewed on a series of video monitors and projection screens (donated by the Massachusetts College of Art).
Shots showing airport lobbies, empty stadiums or McDonald's golden arches glaring eerily in the night scroll at such a snail's
pace that the casual observer might walk by without seeing any movement. But that same observer could return 10 minutes later
and see a completely different set of images. Juxtaposed with each of the sets of screens is the projection of a word that covers
a category: strategy, unit, architecture, nature, prosthesis, body. The computer selects a category randomly and then pulls up all
of the images that are cross-referenced with it. Because of this, the same image might end up juxtaposed with different
categories.

The images were shot on digital video and are from a variety of locations such as Hawaii, the US mainland, New Zealand and
Europe, all places Fry and McLaughlin have been in their travels over the last three years. Both shot images with ideas about
statements they were trying to make. Then they went through the thousands of stills and chose categories to go with the images
for the exhibit.

''We're interested in the idea of some kinds of experiences being perceived as mediated experiences and others seeming more
direct,'' says McLaughlin. ''We'd like to maybe hint at the idea that all of our experiences are mediated by language, advertising
and built environments.''

''It illustrates the lengths we will go to try to make sense out of things,'' adds gallery director James Hull.

The exhibit is meant to be viewed from the outside of the gallery by commuters at the Green Street Station stop of the Orange
Line, where the gallery is located. It gets away from the usual fast-paced style of video the public is used to, and seems to have
struck a chord with the varied and multicultural Jamaica Plain crowds that pass through on their way to the T.

''People are so used to television, which moves along at such a frantic pace, and we wanted to get away from that,'' says Fry.
''We've been surprised how much time people are prepared to spend with these images. It really has been quite satisfying.''

''Real a digital installation'' runs through Wednesday, Sept. 12 at The Gallery ... Green Street, 141 Green St. in Jamaica Plain.
Since the exhibit is designed to be seen through the windows from outside the gallery, it is open for viewing 24 hours a day,
seven days a week. The closing reception is Wednesday, Sept. 12, 6-9 p.m. Call 617-522-0000 for details.

This story ran on page W9 of the Boston Globe on 8/26/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.