Chance Encounters

Chance Encounters I: Jerome/Luis
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Chance Encounters I: Clarissa/Krystal
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Chance Encounters II: Icons
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Chance Encounters II: Film Dust
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Chance Encounters II: Green Numbers
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Chance Encounters II: Korean Characters
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MTA 7th & Metro Platform
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Chance Encounters is a computer generated installation presented on video displays at the 7th and Metro Subway station platforms in Los Angeles, as part of the Experimental Art for Riders program. The theme of the installation is the chance encounter potential of the subway environment, passengers' thoughts while waiting, and a collection of objects they might carry with them.

"Chance Encounters" consists of animated visual and Spanish, English text segments that are programmed in random sequence by a database. The project takes as its starting point the often heard expressions "ships passing in the night", or "chance encounters". These quotes function to address the situation of passengers moving past each other in a public transitional space, being in close proximity without the intention of making personal contact with each other. The first installment takes the above topic by juxtaposing two names, collected from cultural communities the subway line services, next to each other on the screen, one chosen alphabetically, the other randomly. At some point, the names are erased by colorful textures.

The intention of the work is to provide some visual stimulus and cultural connection (for instance, the search and encounter of passengers' own names on the screen) that might provide the passengers a momentary personal engagement to the short-lived experience of passing through what Marc Auger calls "non-places", public spaces that we traverse on our way from point A to point B.

(George Legrady)