All Sides of the Road
All Sides of the Road derives from a twelve-minute 3D video capture of Old Highway 101 entering and departing Dewitt, Iowa. After the title image, the cameras are pointed directly down at the highway, which becomes a rushing microcosm of the world that evokes landscapes both of America and of the mind. The resulting spectacle is both utterly photo-realistic and phantasmal.
In addition to landscape, this digital film also evokes earlier forms of analog film, especially those of the American avant-garde, for the physical properties of the highway are like those of celluloid. In motion, the textures of asphalt and concrete look a lot like film grain, while the lane markers flickering by are easily mistaken for the lines and letterings on film leader rushing through the projector gate.
At the same time, the 3D imagery is so immersive that its grain and flickering patterns begin to look like the inside of your brain.
The work is framed by this short introductory text: No hitchhikers on the road anymore. No stories, or silence, between strangers.
All Sides of the Road premiered at the Rome Film Festival and has been screened at festivals in Germany, Brazil, and Cyprus, as well as at MoMA, which has acquired it for its permanent collection.
Created by Downie and Kaiser.
From the archive — the earlier web page for this work
All Sides of the Road derives from a twelve-minute 3D video capture of Old Highway 101 entering and departing Dewitt, Iowa. After the title image, the cameras are pointed directly down at the highway, which becomes a rushing microcosm of the world that evokes landscapes both of America and of the mind. The resulting spectacle is both utterly photorealistic and phantasmagoric.
In addition to landscape, this digital film also evokes earlier forms of analog film, especially those of the American avant-garde, for the physical properties of the highway are like those of celluloid. In motion, the textures of asphalt and concrete look a lot like film grain, while the lane markers flickering by are easily mistaken for the lines and letterings on film leader rushing through the projector gate.
The work is framed by this short introductory text: No hitchhikers on the road anymore. No stories, or silence, between strangers.
In early 2015 this artwork was aquired by MoMA for it permament collection.