Fascmile

A 16' high by 27' wide video screen is suspended by a vertical armature at the parapet and soffit of the new Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco. A live video camera is fixed to the armature, positioned behind the screen and pointed into the glass building. The structure travels slowly along the surface of the building and broadcasts live views on the screen as it moves. The transparency of the glass building is enhanced through this virtual transparency. While the live view naturally corresponds with the speed and direction of the scanning motion, a series of pre-recorded programs are constructed to simulate the same speed. The programs are fictional vignettes that substitute impostors for actual building occupants and spaces. Facsimile could be seen as a scanning device, a magnifying lens, a periscope (a camera at a high elevation looks toward the city), and as an instrument of deception.