TOWER OF ELEMENTS

THE TOWER OF ELEMENTS is a 20 meter tall multi-screen video installation for “The Elements” exhibit in Bremerhaven Germany. The installation is a meditation on Greek philosopher Empedocles* and his notion of the four elements —fire, air, water, earth—and is projected on four vertical trapezoid shaped screens suspended in an open stairwell.

To get an idea of how the exhibit looks/works, it’s best to first take a look at a short “demo” segment placed into a 3D model of the stairwell for an initial test. The full final film follows in 2D, composited onto one screen, really just for reference, as the impact is not at all comprehendible in this scale.

Short sequence in 3d model:

Full version in 2d composited into one screen. (Some German text; un-subtitled.)

* Greek philosopher Empedocles is best known for being the originator of the cosmogenic theory of the four Classical elements. (He also proposed powers called Love and Strife which would act as forces to bring about the mixture and separation of the elements.) Legend has it that he died by throwing himself into an the active volcano crater of Mount Etna so that people would believe his body had vanished and he had turned into an immortal god. The German text read by a child at the beginning of the film comes from Matthew Arnold’s 1852 poem Empedocles on Etna, a narrative of the philosopher’s last hours before he jumps to his death:

To the elements all things came from
Everything will return.
Our bodies to earth,
Our blood to water,
Heat to fire,
Breath to air.

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