Michael Snow Art Walk

woman looking at black and white image of people walking framed by mirror
Lesley Bell (BA '88), former Learning Commons Co-ordinator at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts (MIWSFPA), has researched the history of Michael Snow’s Timed Images installation at Brock. She is pictured here with Frame Three, which now hangs in the School.

Timed Images (1972-1973) was a multi-part photo and video composition by acclaimed Canadian artist Michael Snow (1928-2023). It was conceived for, and installed in Macknezie Chown Complex, then known as the Academic Staging Building.

Using analog photography and emerging video photography, Snow created an immersive and interactive experience for people in the University. Snow developed his concept in collaboration with the building’s architect, Raymond Moriyama.

Snow was a widely acclaimed Canadian artist. His many honours included Officer of the Order of Canada (1981), Governor General’s Award in Media Arts (2000), the Gershon Iskowitz Prize (2011) and an honourary Doctor of Law degree from Brock University (1974). He is also known for his Canada geese sculpture, Flight Stop (1979), that hangs in Toronto’s Eaton Centre and his piece The Audience (1989) on the exterior of the SkyDome (now called the Rogers Centre).

Only a few part of Snow’s Timed Images remain in place today at Brock. To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of its installation and to mark the passing of the artist in January 2023, we have recorded an audio walking tour of Snow’s work with researcher Lesley Bell. Listen to the tour online or in your favourite podcast app and view the accompanying images below as you listen.

Photos provided by Lesley Bell and used with permission.

view up towards mirrored alcove in Pond Inlet
Timed Images: Frame 1 (Pond Inlet), Michael Snow. Photo by architect Raymond Moriyama in Brock's Archives and Special Collections.
mirrored wall with black rectangle
Timed Images: Frame 1 (Pond Inlet), Michael Snow. View of black frame on mirrored wall.
mirrored frame on concrete block wall
Timed Images, Frame 2 (D-Block) Michael Snow. The mirrored frame is mounted on the concrete block wall across from a still photography camera.
Timed Images, Frame 2 (D-Block) Michael Snow. Sketch of the installation by the artist.
Timed Images, Frame 2 (D-Block) Michael Snow. Sketch of the installation by the artist.
Timed Images, Frame 3 (C-Block) Michael Snow. A still image taken using Frame 2 is framed by a mirror.
Timed Images, Frame 3 (C-Block) Michael Snow. A Sony DXC video came was positioned in the wall across from the mirrored frame and image to film people walking in front of the piece. This image was transmitted down the hall to a TV monitor.
Pencil sketch diagram
Timed Images, Frame 3 (C-Block) Michael Snow. This sketch by Snow shows how the camera and mirror frame were set up.
Photo of wall in C block
The dotted red square in this photo shows the location of the video camera in C Block. It was located between the current Map, Data, and GIS Library and the entrance to D Block.
Timed Images, Frame 4. (MC C Block). Michael Snow. This is a photo of the mirror-framed TV monitor connected to the video camera down the hall. Over time the still image of Frame 3 recorded by the video camera became increasingly ‘burned into’ its tube technology. The resulting blurred image was displayed on this monitor screen. In other words, the camera recording itself deteriorated over time, something Snow liked, of course. This is the key to the installation, being about 'time.'
Concrete block wall
Timed Images, Frame 4 (MC C Block) Michael Snow. The dotted square shows the location of the video monitor that displayed the feed from Frame 3.
Timed Images, Frame 4 (MC C Block), Michael Snow. Architect Raymond Moriyama's diagram showing installation of the TV monitor, a Philips EL8125 model.
Timed Images, Frame 4 (MC C Block), Michael Snow. This is Snow's sketch of the TV monitor showing how the multiple mirror frames appear in the image.
Timed Images, Frame 5 (MC B Block), Michael Snow. The final image in the series shows a self portrait of Snow with the frame from Pond Inlet (Frame 1). The image is a photographic negative, so the bright windows of Pond Inlet appear as dark blocks and the black frame appears light. Snow took the portrait using the 35 mm still camera later installed as part of Frame 2.
Timed Images, Frame 5 (MC B Block), Michael Snow. Artist's sketch of the self-portrait.
Timed Images, Frame 5 (MC B Block) Michael Snow. The red dotted box shows the location of the final frame in the series, which is still in its original location as of April 2023.
Timed Images, Frame 5 (MC B Block) Michael Snow. This is the positive print image of the negative that is displayed on the wall in B Block. The artist is taking a still photograph of himself in front of Frame 1 in Pond Inlet.
Timed Images, Matrix Sketch. Michael Snow. This is the artist's sketch of the frame matrix painted on the wall of B Block. The graphic shows the dimensions of the frames used throughout the Timed Images installation, starting with Frame 1 (the largest) to Frame 5 (the smallest). The graphic is still in its original location as of April 2023.
Timed Images, Matrix (MC B Block) Michael Snow. The wall graphic, still in its original location.
The photo mural Michael Snow created as part of Timed Images. Snow took each of the 1600 photographs during construction of the Academic Stage Building (Mackenzie Chown Complex) in 1972. Originally located at the end of A Block (where it now adjoins Goodman), the photo mural was moved to the A-Block staircase. The man in this photo from 1973 is Doug Geddie, then head of External Relations. (Photo from Brock Archives and Special Collections)

Related Reading

Acclaimed artist Michael Snow remembered with campus art (Brock News, Jan. 13, 2023)

Celebrated Canadian artist Michael Snow’s contribution to Brock revisited in new documentary (Brock News, Aug. 18, 2021)

Michael Snow’s work featured at MIWSFPA (Brock News, Sept. 27, 2018)

Robert Arn, Form and Sense of Video. artscanada October 1973.

Getting Lost in Mackenzie Chown Complex with Lesley Bell. Foreword. Series 4 Episode 9. Podcast. (April 24, 2023)