SHIFTING INTIMACIES
CAPTURE 4 AWARD
Artistic Director Charlotte
Vincent,
Interactive Visual Designer Keith
Armstrong
Interactive Sound Designer Guy
Webster
Performer TC Howard
Charlotte, Keith and Guy were awarded the ICA/Arts Council England co-commission
award to create Shifting Intimacies in 2005/06. This interactive
installation, the video material of which features TC Howard,
was first exhibited and experienced at the ICA London from 16-21 February
2006.
Shifting Intimacies is an interactive/media artwork that
invites the participant to meditate upon and witness the human body disintegrating
and transforming whilst in motion.
Each participant enters a large, dark space containing two circles of projected
film imagery presented within an immersive sound environment. One image
floats upon a disc of white sand and the other on a circle of white dust.
Participants’ movements direct and affect the filmic image and spatialised
audio experience. Throughout the work a layer of dust (an artificial life
form) slowly eats away and infuses itself deep into the imagery and sound.
This immersive work invites differing states of meditation, exploration,
stillness and play, creating states of shifting balance that produce a heightened
awareness of the body.
Each person has 10 minutes alone with the work. Their movement through the
space continually affects speed, quality, balance and flow within the work.
At the end of the experience they are invited to climb a lit platform and
cast dust back onto the images below.
The work uses a range of technologies including interactive video (Very Nervous System), body heat sensors, custom built electronics, image databases, real time computational synthesis software (Cycling '74 Max), networking software, real time audio digital signal processing (Max MSP) and real time show control protocols. Controllable actuators also move physical material through the air.
It was like interior journey as I was all alone thinking about my life and my thoughts. I felt really alone there. Frightening – scary – deep Participant ICA
I really enjoyed it. I felt lots of feelings and sensations. I seemed like the birth, from the Earth’s womb.I had no idea what to expect until the very last minute. Discs of light in a darkened room made me very excited and nervous. Participant ICA
Loved the feeling of being in a big dark space alone… I went from not understanding and then wanting to explore and then at the end when the sand changed the picture-it was beautiful Participant ICA
Shifting Intimacies is an ICA/Arts Council England co-commission for Capture 4 and has also been generously supported during this project by the Centre for Media Research (CMR) at University of Ulster, Arts Queensland, Site Gallery and Vincent Dance Theatre.
