S-334473, First the View, Then the Machine

This is the view through the instrument created by the artist Sarah Oppenheimer, titled S-334473 which is installed at MASS MoCA.  It is described this way:  "Sarah Oppenheimer creates precise instruments for manipulating our built environment - altering our frame of spatial reference, displacing our experience of inside and out, and inverting out sense of what is near and far, here and there."  So this is a view through the device, pointed at the windows which face north from one of the buildings.  It is a bit like a kaleidoscope in a way.  So that's what you see.  And this is the instrument:

It consists of two very thick pieces of glass in parallel, and a metal top and bottom, and it is mounted to the floor and ceiling with heavy pipe.  If you grab one corner and start moving it, eventually it will point straight up and down.  It is massively heavy and takes some effort to turn it, but it is worth it, to move it around while looking through it.