Portland State University Environmental Studies Professor John Reuter has called for the creation of new metaphors and the identification of characteristic patterns that will allow people to grasp the immensity of natural processes. The Intellectual Ecosystem adopts the metaphor of the ecosystem, as a way of capturing the intertwining strands of research and thought that characterize the modern university and its relationship to the city. 

Video projections on the glass facade of the University Academic and Student Recreation Center reinforce the University’s identity as an institution at the cutting edge of contemporary computer science and digital communication. The moving images animate the plaza, engaging both students and the public that pass through campus in the streetcar or come to PSU for events, reinforcing its identity as a source of energy and activity in the city. 

A high powered projector controlled by a dual-graphic processor allows content to recombine in an endlessly variable program. One hundred preset transformations are available with the dual processor, resulting in a constantly changing ephemeral display that both reflects the PSU community and juxtaposes images in a way that stimulates the creative connection of ideas. Reflecting the way ideas inform each other in a university community is a primary goal of the Intellectual Ecosystem.

Nineteen different faculty researchers and an equal number of student cultural groups were involved as advisors and subjects to develop a series of 39 dreamlike vignettes. Faculty research using advanced digital imaging systems is another important strand woven into the experimental video system. The vignettes are remixed constantly so the video program is never the same. The screen is transparent even when the projector is active allowing the activities of students inside the building to become another layer in the composition. The projections also pass through the screen, animating the surface of the plaza below.

Artist Fernanda D’Agostino