Catalogue / Plate 11← All plates
A lens with several views of one place
One log, and a glass that shows who lives there after dark, in winter and spring.

Autumn, as you pass
Generated images
A fallen oak log on an autumn woodland floor. Through the lens, the same log shows who lives there, the same spot after dark by torchlight, in winter and in spring. With sound on, each bird can be heard, louder as the lens nears it.
Nature reserve · Hertfordshire
An empty log? Look closer.
Move across the log: the glass shows who is really there. Choose when to look.
pictures decoded … · views 0/4 ready
Birdsong credits
- Troglodytes troglodytes - Eurasian Wren XC554784, Benoît Van Hecke, xeno-canto via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Strix aluco - Tawny Owl XC534183, Antonio, xeno-canto via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Erithacus rubecula - European Robin XC527484, Benoît Van Hecke, xeno-canto via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Turdus pilaris - Fieldfare XC531160, Benoît Van Hecke, xeno-canto via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Turdus merula - Common Blackbird XC541784, Benoît Van Hecke, xeno-canto via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Each trimmed to 12 seconds, faded, made mono and levels matched.
Remake it
Build one interactive web page: An empty log on a woodland walk, and a glass that shows who lives there, the same spot after dark, in winter and in spring. A field-guide label names whatever is under the glass. After dark the wood goes black and the glass is a torch; with sound on, it listens, and each bird grows louder as the glass nears it. Five registered pictures in one WebGL shader. Set it on an invented business called Sampleton, with its own drawn or generated pictures and no one else's files. It suits: Any place with more to it than one moment shows: a nature reserve, a garden designer (now, in a year, in ten), a room furnished, empty or as a floor plan, a building by day and by night. Do not let it fail the way this kind of piece usually does: Too many views to load, labels nobody can read, or sound nobody asked for. Here only the walk and the first view load before the lens opens and the rest follow; every view is decoded before the glass may show it; and no audio is fetched or played until the visitor presses Listen. It must work with the keyboard, on a phone, with reduced motion respected and no text under 12px. Tell me which libraries you chose and why.
Notes: when it suits, when it does not, how it fails
- When it suits
- Any place with more to it than one moment shows: a nature reserve, a garden designer (now, in a year, in ten), a room furnished, empty or as a floor plan, a building by day and by night.
- When it does not
- Pictures shot from different positions (the glass would show a different place), and visitors who need one fact fast.
- How it fails
- Too many views to load, labels nobody can read, or sound nobody asked for. Here only the walk and the first view load before the lens opens and the rest follow; every view is decoded before the glass may show it; and no audio is fetched or played until the visitor presses Listen.
Measured on: landonorris.com · T9 · A construction client's build · C6. Built from scratch for an invented business; nothing here comes from the site studied.