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OUIJA Projection by Tim Weeks, www.spyscience.net OUIJA was made possible with a Project Patch grant from Artpatch
OUIJA was inaugurated at Artpatch Gallery as an installation involving the larger-than-life Ouija board and a real-time projection of people using it. Modeled after the iconic, mass-produced, 1950s version of Charles Kennard's original 1890 board, this 30 x 47 inch board (three times actual size) was made to look aged and mysterious, like a divine artifact. Part artifact, part record of vernacular folklore and part social experiment, OUIJA is inspired by the partnership of desire, curiosity and fear that guides our relationship to the immaterial realm. On August 4th, 2005, visitors divined answers to their most pressing questions in an intimate space within the Artpatch gallery. A birds-eye-view video camera rigged with a no-tech fabric and wax filter projected these movements onto the wall in the main room so they appeared as massive, ghosted fragments. OUIJA dissects the perceptions and behaviors that people exhibit at this crossroads of popular culture and the world of spirits and occult practices. Despite the fact that Ouija boards are mass-produced by machines at a major gaming company (Hasbro/Parker Brothers), most people at the Artpatch installation confessed that Ouija boards can "work" — that they possess magical powers to connect the living with the spirit world. Several visitors confessing their fear of the board's power chose not to go into the curtained room where the board stood.
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