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Amid a precarious setting of crumbling diorite walls, the waters of the upper Arroyo Seco slide down some 50 feet down a steep incline known as Switzer falls. Normally a modest dribble, but occasionally an exuberant cascade, the falls are tantalizingly secretive-they can be approached at close range only by some foolhardy scrambling over unstable or slippery rock (definitely not recommended-many people have been seriously hurt this way).
As I followed Jerry Schads’ description down to the falls I noticed a hermetic group of four people dressed in 20th century garments and geometric headdresses, partially made from reflective materials. These people were definitely into their own thing, holding little plastic mirrors in their hands redirecting beams of sunlight onto another as they waded through a shallow pond, next to an object that featured a small number of colored surfaces. When I took out my video camera, they directed the light straight into my lens. –In an attempt to brake it? I don’t know, I couldn’t say whether they were hostile or friendly. Their communication with light was in such a continuous flow that any attempt of interruption was swiftly muffled by their neglect.
Later, when I watched the tape, I realized that the light reflections in the camera had taken the shape of the object in the pond.