Pattern Test No.1 is a video work produced by flying a lightweight drone toward an industrial standing fan in an indoor setting. Because of its small body and limited power, the drone struggles against the fan's airflow, producing a flickering and unstable recording. Mounted at the centre of the fan is a McCollough-effect test pattern. Named after the American psychologist Celeste McCollough, the McCollough effect is a visual aftereffect in which black-and-white striped patterns appear faintly coloured after prolonged exposure to coloured stripes of different orientations.
Variations of similar striped patterns appear throughout contemporary visual culture, from aerial camera calibration targets and resolution charts to psychological image sets used as visual stimuli in perception research. Occupying a space between scientific instrument, experimental image, and optical illusion, these patterns have long been used to probe the conditions through which vision is measured, calibrated, and conditioned.
The work explores the dynamism between aerodynamic force, machine vision, and perceptual conditioning. As the drone fights to maintain its position, the camera image vibrates against a pattern that already destabilizes the relationship between colour, orientation, and visual adaptation. Originally developed within psychological research on visual perception, the McCollough effect occupies an uncertain territory between physiological response and image production, where seeing itself becomes subject to conditioning and interference. As a contemporary optical apparatus, the drone mediates between environmental force, technical vision, and perceptual cognition.
In the final installation, the footage is projected through a glass cube positioned on a steel utility cart. As the light passes through the glass, the image is split into staggered horizontal fragments and subtly colour-shifted. The projection extends the optical instability of the original recording into the exhibition space, transforming the drone's encounter with airflow into a layered field of refraction, vibration, and perceptual uncertainty.