Acedia

Acedia by Ajunie Virk :: FRFF Supported (#2023-011) from STUDIO for Creative Inquiry on Vimeo.

“Acedia” is a stained glass and projection research project by Ajunie Virk. Virk was inspired by the rumored ntentions behind Medieval-era European churches’ incorporations of stained glass into their design. The tedious length of services and general lack of literacy of the times caused many people to zone out during prayer. In an attempt to refocus everyone’s thoughts back onto the stories of the Bible, artists were commissioned to create stained glass windows that displayed the stories being ignored. She was interested in this intense state of boredom which can only be achieved by hours of stagnation, sympathizing that she could already see how she would react herself, sitting alongside everyone in a trance and seeing the glass sway as my vision moves in and out of focus.

This is the creation of this very same “living” stained glass window from my imagination, which through projecting onto glass will create the illusion of these hallucinatory movements. Because of the blend of mediums taking place here, the main goal is to seamlessly blend the physical construction of the stained glass panel with a digital medium like animation through the use of rear projection films and visual illusion. The research for this project covered testing out different types of projection film with the goal of determining which one allows the glass to hold the projection without sacrificing its transparency and look. The current, smaller panel prototype is based on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale “A Riddling Tale”.