Portal to Elliot Concord River Preserve is a large-scale (33.75 x 82 in) door-sized trompe-l’œil three-stage lenticular public art intervention. This work is currently installed on the campus of Bentley University in the lower level of Lindsay Hall—just footsteps from the University’s Film and Media Studies Lab. First proposed as an image-shifting “door to nature,” the project was funded through a private research grant from the Academic Advisory Council for Signage Research and Education (AACSRE)—a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit research organization founded in 2015. The photographic images used to generate the portal were captured on a nature trail located within Elliott Concord River Preserve in Carlisle, MA. A case study[1] documenting the project, methods, and outcomes was published in the Interdisciplinary Journal of Signage and Wayfinding.
Media—
Specifications and Credits—
- Lenticular printing: Visual Creative Graphics Innovations, San Jose, CA
- Research Advisor: Ellen Babcock, Associate Professor: Art Practices, Department of Art, College of Fine Arts, The University of New Mexico
- Camera: Fujifilm X-S10
- Lens: SIRUI 24mm F2.8 Anamorphic (X-Mount)
Related talks—
- “Hallway Talk,” Bentley University, Lindsay Hall. March 25, 2025.
- “Portal to Elliot Concord River Preserve,” English and Media Studies Research Forum, LaCava Center, Bentley University, March 26, 2025.
Footnotes
- Vlahos, Dan. “Exploring the Affects and Effects of a Trompe-l’œil Lenticular Portal to Nature.” Interdisciplinary Journal of Signage and Wayfinding, vol. 9, no. 1, 2025, pp. 49–56, https://doi.org/10.15763/issn.2470-9670.2025.v9.i1.a166.
FILED IN: Art
