Scrollscape was an immersive site-specific installation consisting of hand-cast paper scrolls which collectively hung from the ceiling of Artspace (New Haven, CT). Composed from blue, black, white, and gray pigmented cotton and denim pulp, viewers could see the installation from the sidewalk through the Orange-Street-facing window—mediated their experiences at a distance—or from within the gallery, as walking bodies generated the spinning circulation of each scroll. The empty walls became activated by the scrolls’ shadows, which changed with the weather, light and viewers’ movements.

 

This toggling between 'front' and 'back'—activated by viewers’ behaviors—evokes a feedback loop in which one data set produces another data set and is, in turn, reproduced over and over. Body-scaled and mobile, the scrolls are suggestive of personas—different from yet related to a person who has created a version of themselves online. While apps like Instagram or Facebook often privilege the optical experience of looking at images, Rooney’s installation asks a radical question: what does the embodiment of this experience feel like? How does the interaction of real persons with online personas affect the behavior of both?