Ross Coulter, Domed Reading Room, State Library of Victoria, photography, 2011
Summary
On 14 March 2011, Ross Coulter undertook a performance in the legendary Domed Reading Room of State Library Victoria. No less than 10,000 paper planes were released from its upper terraces by 165 volunteers and their flight was recorded via multi-camera video and still photography.
The dome is a place of reflective contemplation. It is also a space for action, in the form of reading and writing, and a place where paper is king. This thinking coalesced into the idea for the project. The flight paths of the paper planes in the dome could be seen as the movement of information through space and time, and, as a nice corollary, the dome itself echoes the shape of a cranium.
The project was more concerned with the space within than the architectural structure that frames it. At a social level it sought visual articulation of the notion that a rebellious act can also be one of beauty and poetry.
