One Crazy Summer – Commission for Planet Word Museum, Washington DC. 
2019
mixed media, digital prints, LED lights, wood box
12 x 24 x 24 inches

“One Crazy Summer” is an interactive sound and light diorama that is set in a wall in the permanent exhibition “Secrets of the Stacks” at Planet Word Museum. The piece is inspired by a historical fiction novel by American author Rita Williams-Garcia. The diorama “One Crazy Summer” incorporates backlit digital photographs that include images of people. The structures in front of the photographs are architectural models. When the viewer approaches the box they face a framed mirror and plaque with a quote from the book. If they read the quote a sensor activates the lights inside the diorama and reveals the scene behind the glass. The sound also triggers a recorded voice that completes the quote. 

One Crazy Summer (detail right side)
mixed media, digital photos, LED lights, wood box

This is a detail view of the right side of the box. It shows the mother in the scene and the kitchen transformed into her art studio.

One Crazy Summer (detail center)
mixed media, digital prints, LED lights, wood box

This is a detail view of the living room. I used photoshop to place the male figure into a landscape.The photograph is backlit and sits behind the window in the model.

One Crazy Summer (detail left side)
mixed media, digital prints, LED lights, wood box

This scene shows a view of the girls’ bedroom. I photographed three girls in an actual bedroom and then photoshopped the image so it visually blended with the diorama. The photographic image is backlit. The area in front of the photograph is an architectural model.