Every Environment is Text-Rich: Framingham

Every Environment is Text-Rich: Framingham, by Brooke A. Knight, is one of a growing series of artworks that concern themselves with the interaction between the landscape and our reading of it. I believe that every place carries with it a history — either social, political, natural, or geologic — and that the history becomes a “text” that is inscribed onto the landscape.

The piece uses a remote robotic camera that is trained on downtown Framingham. While the image is of a typical Massachusetts downtown square, the camera moves to spell out letters that write a text onto the scene. That text is the grant that gave Danforth (after whom the museum is named) two-thirds of current day Framingham. In essence, EEITR:F is writing the history of the town directly onto the town. It is a kind of ephemeral grafitti, making the historical current, and tying the past to the place.

At the Danforth Museum, Framingham, Massachusetts; February 22-April 19, 2006. Reception and Artist Talk on February 26, 1:00 p.m.