Container Camera

2025 // CONCEPT DEVELOPED FOR KAOHSIUNG [TW]

I’ve transformed a shipping container into a multi-lens camera obscura—an immersive space that invites visitors to slow down and experience a new superimposed Kaohsiung while simultaneously gaining a deeper understanding of image production.

Container Camera inverts the traditional function of the container: from holding and protecting goods in transit to containing fleeting images of the world outside. The installation enables locals and visitors a rare opportunity to inhabit the harbor geography and build a new relationship to this place; transforming the container into a site of wonder.

Unlike most camera obscuras, which use a single lens, Container Camera incorporates multiple lenses, simultaneously projecting. Each lens will project a distinct view of the outside world, creating overlapping, layered scenes. These composite images form a fluid, living geography. Hinged mirrors and additional lenses allow the audience to interact with and alter the projections. Moving a mirror redirects the image across the container walls. Layering lenses alters scale and depth. The lenses are also able to capture people standing outside the container, allowing the audience to mix their projections with those of the harbor, creating a multilayered view of humans and geography.

Container Camera is a participatory installation where the audience becomes artists, remapping Kaohsiung through visual play and collective imagination. Visitors are encouraged to photograph the constellations they create and share them online, contributing to a growing digital archive of unique, co-created works, reflecting the special place.

Exterior rendering collage of the Container Camera at the site, showing a person in a wheelchair up the entrance ramp, photographing the narrative mounted exteriorly explaining what the space is like. In the background Kaohsiung Music Center.

Container Camera reaches out to the city of Kaohsiung. A fragmented map of Kaohsiung’s harbor area, on top of which the container camera stands in the center. From it three triangles extends highlighting what can be seen in the camera — Container Camera reaches out to the city of Kaohsiung. A fragmented map of Kaohsiung’s harbor area, on top of which the container camera stands in the center. From it, three triangles extend, showing the areas that will be visible from within the container camera.

A digital drawing of the plan, around it are the six views that will be visible inside the container camera, based on the estimated location at the site. The views will be overlapped and mixed through the different lenses.

The long and cross section of the Container Camera, showing people inside experiencing and interacting with the multiple exposed projections. Above the drawings are two images showing samples of what the multiple exposed images can look like. — The long and cross-section of the Container Camera, showing people inside experiencing and interacting with the multiple exposed projections. Above the drawings are two images showing samples of what the multiple exposed images could look like as stills. The actual images inside the Contain Camea will first of all be moving like a film, but is also light mixing, which digital tools can not fully simulate. The image in the Container Camera will be both ephemeral and tangible. And if the audience touches the screens, they will move both in space and time.

Elevations of the four exterior sides. The exterior is anticipated to be left as found. The only change is seeing the wood parts cut through the walls holding the lenses, which will entice the audience to find out more.

The interior is a mixture of contemporary, clean-cut wood elements and the raw container walls, allowing for both the rough and refined to coexist.

Exploded diagram of the Contain Camera showing the simple elements it contains.