Shifting intimacies

Description

Shifting Intimacies is a large-scale interactive/media artwork created during a six-month research residency in England at the Institute of Contemporary Art London and Vincent Dance Theatre Sheffield. Individuals experience 10 minutes alone with the work. They enter 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 whilst the other falls upon a circle of white dust. Participants’ unencumbered movements are detected by an array of sensors direct and affect the subsequent realtime-composed series of filmic images and spatialised audio. Throughout the work a layer of dust (an artificial life form) slowly eats away and infuses itself deep into the imagery and consequent ‘granularised’ sound. Continual movement through the space affects resulting speed, quality, balance and flow within the work. At the end of the experience the participant is invited to climb a lit platform and cast dust back onto the images below.-----
The project cross-fertlised knowledges of performance and media arts in the pursuit of an expanded and enriched range of interactive experiences for audiences, whilst promoting new opportunities to foster a better understanding of cultural and ecological co dependencies.-----
Following its international premiere it has since become a successful touring production with curated showings booked into 2009/10. It has garnered strong audience and critical responses and has been a key case study for two published, scholarly papers, developing the idea of a ‘Grounded Media” form.