NOW : THEN
Wishard Memorial Hospital
Indianapolis, Indiana
Finalist Proposal 2011
This proposal was derived from the tradition at the original Wishard Hospital of placing portraits of children above the beds of patients in the children’s ward. This idea, of bridging people across time, place and cultures, offers a meaningful and very human connection.
In Now : Then, visitors to the hospital can record brief full body video clips of themselves that will be added to the piece over time. These clips are recorded whenever someone steps into a specially illuminated alcove and stands still. The videos are recorded and date stamped to be called up later.
An embossed metal line is set into the floor. By standing and positioning one’s body over this line you can dial forward and backwards in time to see visitors to the hospital over the weeks months and years since the piece was installed.
Paintings that comfort and connect patients with those came before.
Now : Then plays slow motion videos of past visitors to the hospital. Each paying respect to the Wishard's tradition.
The videos will flip like a rolodex when you move forward and backward over the strip.
Self-made video portraits of patients and visitors to the Clinic offer a continuity with the egalitarian past of the hospital. People can simply make a video of themselves and come back later, maybe years later, and see themselves and others from the past.
Cast metal ‘path’ cut into the flooring indicating ‘past’ and ‘present’. Depending on where people stand on the line, video-clips are shown at that time period. If people just casually walk by, the screens just show a slow ‘blur’ to as not to distract or upset people.
The ‘photobooth’ is in the corner of the space, but visible from the waiting room. Anyone can make a simple 15 second video of themselves. However, they have to stand reasonably still, or the tracking software will not capture them. A little like the delay in old-time photographs.