California living 2013

part of the machine project field guide to LA architecture

presented by pacific standard time - an initiative of the getty

 SEPT. 2013

In the Fall of 2013, Nate Page participated in Machine Project’s Field Guide to LA Architecture presented by Pacific Standard Time – an initiative of the Getty – by creating a one night, outdoor multi-channel video installation that treated Joseph Eichler’s Balboa Highlands tract as both subject and object. Page's now-collaborator, Chelsea Zeffiro, originally handled video production for California Living 2013.

the concept:

The Eichler houses' fortress-like walls and airy interiors epitomize construction techniques for mid-century Modern homes, and the California Living  piece explores the tract home’s iconic role in California architecture and history.

Using the expansive, impenetrable facades as projection screens, projected videos showed Balboa Highland residents moving about inside, as they would normally be seen through the transparent glass walls facing their private backyards. The projections were spaced throughout the neighborhood, activating a few houses, and implicating any of the tracts’ other 90+ homes as a possible projection sites, imagining the lives within.

The event created a casual evening of self-directed exploration through the neighborhood – a chance to bring out the neighbors and public for a suburban stroll through a Modernist paradox of isolation and openness.

PAGE & ZEFFIRO HAVE DEVELOPED CALIFORNIA LIVING INTO A SECOND ITERATION FEATURING DANCE ARTISTS IN COLLABORATION WITH RESIDENTS – EXPLORING A NEW  EICHLER TRACT IN PALO ALTO, CA.  CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT IT