Egress at Pump ProjectEgress offers a mystery for gallery goers to solve. Based on the locked room subgenre of the detective novel, the locked room, the crime is sealed from the inside, and it is seemingly impossible for the criminal to evade detection either entering or leaving the crime scene. The viewer takes on the role of detective, reader, and perhaps more sinister characters. Rather than solve a murder, the visitor pieces together the clues to complete the artwork. Egress presents a conundrum that hinges on the history of the pursuit of perpetual motion, itself a kind of locked room mystery. While looking for clues, viewers explore this unique history of failed inventions and attempts to defy the laws of nature. Both perpetual motion and locked room mysteries require the realization of an act defined as impossible. Locked room mysteries involve the perpetration of impossible crimes, and perpetual motion demands the perpetuation of a machine without expending energy. In each scenario the unbelievable is revealed to be merely an artful trick.
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