Parking Day is an annual event where architects, artists, designers, and activists transform parking spots into temporary public parks, highlighting both the amount of space that our vehicles take up and what that space could be used for.
Our design initially was to transform the space into a large camera obscura, but we had concerns about our ability to create a light tight box. Instead, we created a grid of 18 pinhole cameras that would project onto vellum screens, creating a gallery of the outside world. By separating visitors from their environment and presenting the outside world to them in this way, we hoped to challenge their perception of their surroundings.
The structure itself was a plywood clad box with 18 apertures cut into the side that faced the street. We found that we could use common magnifying glasses to refocus light from a larger diameter aperture, allowing the projected image to be visible with just a little bit of shade. We crafted small, telescoping boxes with to house our projection screen (vellum). This allowed us to individually focus each image on build day
I was honestly amazed with how clear and bright the projected images were. People thought we had some sort of video camera set up with screens, which made their reactions all the better when we explained that there was no "technology" involved, just light entering a hole in the wall and projecting an image on paper.
