Binocular Project

is a collaboration between Soyeon Jung and Hans Gindlesberger. It is a roving, site-specific work that responds to the physical, aesthetic, historical, and cultural conditions of the locations in which it is situated.

Site #1: 495 Paderewski Dr., Buffalo, NY

Buffalo Central Terminal is a historic former railroad station in Buffalo, New York. An active station from 1929 to 1979, the 17-story Art Deco style station was designed by architects Fellheimer & Wagner for the New York Central Railroad.

Buffalo Central Terminal

Buffalo’s Central Terminal is imagined as a transitory site, both in its original function and in respect to its flagging viability and gradual absence from the public consciousness.

An oversized, stereo viewing device, similar in appearance to an elongated pair of binoculars, transmits photographic and moving images to the viewer as they engage with the piece. Considering the form of the stereoscope, the right and left channels address the duality of the Terminal. One channel is composed of video (movement, transport, vitality) while the other is photo-based (immobile, lacking momentum). The simultaneity of the viewer’s engagement forges a concise meditation on the historical and contemporary status of this architectural landmark.

Site #2: 885 Niagara St., Buffalo, NY

The Buffalo Milk Company Building was built in 1903–1905, and is a three-story, “L”-shaped, brick and sandstone building in the Renaissance Revival style. Additions to the building were made in 1910 and 1911.

Buffalo Milk Company Building

A building in the midst of being recovered, the façade appears relatively anonymous, however, the interior is marked with traces of its history as a dairy, bakery, community grocery, church, architectural salvage warehouse, and other intermittent uses. Fragments of this history found in layers of paint, discarded signage, piles of furniture, leftover merchandise, and myriad artifacts with untraceable origins layer on top of each other to create a palimpsest that both reveals and obscures the history of the place.

The left-channel disassembles the architectural palimpsest by closely observing evidence found on site, while the right-channel begins with a story from the local newspaper and buries it under the application of new layers of writing.