Argus is an immersive installation that explores the act of seeing itself: how light, material, and perception intertwine to construct our experience of space. Developed through a collaboration between the MIT Glass Lab, MIT Museum Studio, the Media Lab, and the Edgerton Center, the work transforms handcrafted optical elements into a dynamic environment of projected light and motion.

At the center of the installation is a custom optical system composed of hand-blown glass elements arranged into a sculptural array. These glass forms act as lenses, diffusers, and distorters, capturing and refracting light in complex ways. A projection system passes through this assembly, translating subtle internal structures (imperfections, striations, and curvature) into large-scale spatial phenomena that fill the room.

Drawing inspiration from early optical instruments and techniques such as schlieren imaging, Argus operates as a kind of inverted camera obscura. Instead of rendering an image of the external world, it reveals the inner behavior of light itself. The resulting projections create a continuously shifting environment where form, depth, and motion emerge from the material properties of glass.