September 08, 2005
The Ladder
Cinema as Physical Experience
The Ladder--by John Gerrard--consists of two installation rooms, one containing either a large projected landscape, or depending on installation contexts, a window to outdoors. The main room is empty but for an overlayed virtual character only to be seen through a handheld viewing device. This installation room is plain apart from a window, cut high into the wall and giving a vista, across a space, to the landscape in the next room. The virtual character is most interested in the landscape and continually voices concerns and observations as to its nature from his position at the window, standing on a virtual ladder. This monologue, presented as a 3D soundscape and experienced through wireless headphones can be heard throughout the installation and unites the diverse elements within the piece.
The work exists at the faultlines opening between traditional notions of presence and place, blending spatial, generative and augmented elements, both virtual and real together into a work of contemporary art. The artist views the possibilites within augmented or mixed reality as a most important breakthrough in media art, allowing cinematic type installations to move from the 2D plane and inhabit the gallery. Through these strategies cinema can be recontextualised as an interactive and physical experience. [via]
Posted by jo at September 8, 2005 09:52 AM
