Balconies become mushrooms become moss become water. Cephalopods-or so I think, although they don't look like any creatures I recognize-unfold, 100 feet high. Then they are insects, brilliant green. The figures transform again, shifting in Sofia Crespo's Structures of Being, a large-scale projection mapping on the Casa Batlló in Barcelona, an Antoni Gaudí residence from 1904 and now a UNESCO world heritage site.
In addition to working with biomorphic or "nature"-inspired forms, Gaudí often worked with scant plans-or non-traditional ones. For example, in the Sagrada Familia, he hung bags of birdshot from strings to let gravity define the shape; he then used a mirror to flip the shape on its head, turning the descending ends into what would become the basilica's famous spires. These allegedly sui generis tricks have propelled a "genius" narrative, one well problematized by cultural critics and historians but not tourist boards (nor by a Refik Anadol video installation in the building's basement that ends with machine-generated images coming out of the architect's literal head). As Crespo points out, this hagiography can flatten the reality of the creative process and creative growth: "We got a crash tour of Gaudí basically," Crespo recounts, referring to herself and Feileacan Kirkbride McCormick, her collaborator in the media-art duo.
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