Cache Me If You Can is on view in King Plaza, Palo Alto in front of Palo Alto City hall through June 2020. The project, commissioned by the City of Palo Alto City is a three-dimensional, materialized image documenting the life of the plaza over the course of one day.

Moving around the structure and then inside, the 20 printed surfaces chart the course of one day, May 31st, 2019, describing the activity that took place, the changing light levels and shifting shadow patterns.

Unfolded Elevation: Exterior (left) and Interior (right)

Geometrically, the structure is composed of 10 identical triangular panels cut from rigid PVC plastic plastic sheets. Each panel is printed on both sides with a projected pattern derived from photographs of the site, and perforated with a custom pattern designed to match the printed pattern.

Approaching from the front, on axis with city hall, the printed pattern aligns with its surroundings: the building’s fenestration runs down across folded surfaces of the pavilion, and the plaza’s gridded paving pattern extends up to meet it. From other angles, this view is stretched, folded and mirrored, creating other, less faithful views.

Each pixel of the photograph produced 5 circles in a range of hues that, when averaged together, match the hue of the original pixel. From a distance, the photograph is clear, but up close, the surface of the pavilion disintegrates into an abstract pattern of vibrating discs.

Interior shadow patterns re-produce the exterior images.

Thanks to Alex Kim

Photography by Eric Staudenmaier