“Playa Vista” by Joshua Callaghan (2006)

Playa Vista by Joshua Callaghan was a distributed intervention throughout the city of Playa Vista. Images were placed onto various utility boxes and infrastructure in order to supplement their usually unnoticed presence. The images painted onto these utility boxes are projections of the context that surrounds them.

The efforts of this piece are the opposite of pieces such as Duchamp Reloaded by Ji Lee. The images placed on these normally overlooked pieces of infrastructure are a direct reflection of their benign nature. The images serve as a kind of camouflage that also serves as a marker of interest. Upon a far look these artifacts all further disappear into urban surroundings, while upon closer inspection they reveal a deeper understanding of their previous role in urban society. This provides a disparity amongst people in the environment, but still reveals an interesting augmented presence of these overlooked objects.