Video Installation – Research on the Perception and Transformation of the Urban Landscape

Developed as part of my Master’s in Visual and Media Arts at UQAM, From Things to Colors explores how gaze, light, and movement transform the perception of the urban landscape.

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Inspired by Walter Benjamin’s theory of the optical unconscious, this research examines what the eye cannot see but the camera reveals: reflections, distortions, and fleeting colors of the metallic and glass surfaces that compose the city.

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Created from nighttime video footage shot in the streets of Montréal, the installation presents an immersive projection on the windows of CEDEx (UQAM), where passersby become shadows and lights turn into shifting lines.

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Combining image and soundscape, the installation positions the viewer between interior and exterior, reality and illusion — within that in-between space where perception becomes abstraction, and wandering turns into contemplation.

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Through this work, color transcends its role as surface to become the sensitive matter of perception, a trace of the world’s movement.