Barneys New York is famous for its window displays that break new aesthetic ground and go beyond simply displaying clothes. Barneys’ creative team wants windows that draw people to the store even if they don’t need to shop. Patten Studio began collaborating with Barneys to unlock new visual possibilities using kinetic and digital elements.

Barney’s asked us to create a series of windows for Fashion’s Night Out in honor of Carine Roitfeld, the former editor of French Vogue. Mario Sorrenti had just completed a documentary series called “Carine’s World”, and Barneys wanted a sculptural, kinetic approach to feature these videos in their store windows.

The Water Machine began our series of explorations of the use of physical phenomena to manipulate digital video. The result was a device that projected a video clip of Carine up and through a shallow pool of water that was periodically agitated to create ripples on the surface. The textured images were then reflected in a mirror to be viewed by passersby.

In The Walking Window, a mechanical triptych comprising nine TV screens showed Carine in various transit scenarios, such as walking, driving, or riding an elevator. In deliberately staccato motion, the screens folded in on one another, creating physical movements that amplified the on-screen content.