So what are those shapes in the windows?
Great question. We’re glad you asked…
In the fall of 2023, we were still deep in the throes of planning building improvements, and the building was still rather dark and very un-festive at night. The Petaluma Downtown Association came to us and said, “You know, we’re coming into the holiday season—can you do something to liven up the building?”
And as you’ll see below, Hall of the Above co-founder, Danny Castor, has a bit of an obsession with geometry, so he started creating the stellations that are hanging in the windows today.
They are part of a larger series of works Danny calls The Geomancer Project—an exploration of the wonders of the geometry—a few pieces of which are featured below.
Danny’s studio
Disco-Hedron
The piece in the video below is essentially 1/20 of an inverted disco ball. The triangular mirrors all face one point, if you can find that point, you appear in every mirror.
After creating this piece, Danny wanted to make something similar, but that that you could climb into. So we created the disco-hedron, made from big triangles of one-inch thick Baltic birch plywood, covered with mirrors on the inside.
Camera Obscura
If you’re not familiar, a camera obscura is a dark room with a small aperture allowing light to come through, which then projects the world outside onto a surface, upside down and backwards. We wanted to build a big one on wheels (to roll it around and choose where to look), built like a little house to accommodate a number of people.
Other projects in the series include a geometric aviary, solar mapping study, and anamorphic projections. The goal of the Geomancer project is to illustrate properties of the physical world that may otherwise be unseen or under-appreciated, and to increase the awareness and understanding of Geometry through lectures, exhibitions and internships in a way that feels both relevant and exciting.
We are hoping Hall of the Above can be a future venue for some of these explorations.
We hope to see you there!
