PHOTO ESSAY: Experiencing the “Horizon Light”

Nervousness hit me as I walked into a pitch black room with a group of strangers. I waited for my eyes to adjust to the darkness, then walked towards the center. Moments later the lights began flashing and moving furiously across the black canvass below our feet. Music and the sound of intense ocean waves filled the room. I was immersed in a new world.

This was “Horizon is an Imaginary Line,” a light art and “electroacoustic” installation by Maja Petric, an artist with a PhD from UW’s Digital Art and Experimental Media (DXARTS) program. Petric’s goal was to create a “poetic experience of nature,” and together with DXARTS, she transformed the Jones Playhouse Theatre into a surreal landscape where one could walk clouds.

After entering the Playhouse in small groups, visitors experienced the changes of a natural cycle. At first, blue and violet light specked the floor and fog filled the room. As time passed, the lights changed to yellow and green, representing the rising of the sun, and birds began chirping in the distance.

In only a 20 minute span, Petric created a visual universe where my thoughts were with nature, and my body was in a new dimension. Petric’s work is influenced by her childhood. After witnessing the violent split of Yogoslavia, she strived to make artwork that would “transform the traumatized sense of her surroundings.” Though you can no longer experience the perception-altering exhibit for yourself, I hope this photo essay can give you a glimpse inside the transformative spaces of “Horizon is an Imaginary Line.”

All photos below are by Elizabeth Pring.