PirateQ 
Tra Bouscaren’s “Test Pattern” art exhibition will look different the next time you see it. How could it not?
Though crafted from the remnants of the “waste culture” society has created as well as the tools of the ever-growing and maturing surveillance world, “Test Pattern” seems organic, and, in a sense it is.
The site-responsive multimedia installation fills all aspects of the spacious Charles W. Lamar Studio in the Anna Lamar Switzer Center for Visual Arts on the Pensacola State College Pensacola campus. It was crafted using live camera feeds and video projections, rebar, billboards, neon, Styrofoam, rope, chain, steel cables, a car door, guitar strings, umbrellas, paint, roofing tar and much more. Shapes emerge, shadows move, patterns form throughout the visually compelling project.
Bouscaren’s “Test Pattern,” crafted specifically for the exhibition and the dimensions of the Charles W. Lamar Studio, runs through Dec. 9. An opening reception was held on Wednesday, Sept. 14, preceded by a standing-room-only Artist Lecture in the classroom/all-purpose room adjacent to the studio.
“I approach art by any media necessary,’’ Bouscaren told the overflow crowd of students, PSC faculty and staff along with members of the community. His art, he said, isn’t driven by specific media. “The work isn’t so much driven by me being a painter or whatever. It’s more about the concerns that I’m thinking about at the moment.”
Bouscaren thanked PSC Gallery Director Jason Pinckard for assisting him with the month-long installation saying “Test Pattern” would not exist if not for his help.
Visitors journeyed through the installation noticing the fluidity of the exhibition and how visual perception was shaped by spectator movement. Bouscaren noted this is his Artist Lecture saying, “the viewers bring themselves to the party.”
PSC graphic design student Jessica Wright moved slowly through the exhibition, often jotting down notes.
For her, the post-consumerism landscape suggested in the project was not the final testament of life. Wright noticed a flower that was part of the project, busting out amid pieces of the jagged ruins.
You have the manufactured and the organic and this is that transition space between,’’ Wright said. “I really loved it all, but that was my favorite thing – the notion that the planet will do just fine even if humanity comes to an end.”
An assistant professor of Art and Digital Media Area Head at Florida State University, Bouscaren earned a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from Yale University, a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania and is a Ph.D. candidate at SUNY Buffalo.
His work has been featured in museums across the United States as well as in Barcelona, Madrid and Berlin.
The exhibition is free and open to the public. Gallery hours are 8 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Friday. Tours are available with prior arrangements.
For more information, call 850-484-2550 or visit https://visualarts.pensacolastate.edu/art-exhibitions/art-exhibition-tra-bouscaren-multimedia/.