And the now we are nearing the end of a residency. I feel sad that this is the end of something, but also aware that I need a lot of time to reflect about it all.
Now how to go ahead with Fabrica. We are either talking about a two screen option or six screens. Micheal and Matthew from Fabrica are heading toward the six screen and Helen is heading toward a two screen version. We are all aware that it opens in six weeks.
For a six to eight screen version to work I need a lot of projectors. I need to work on the interaction. I need to finish the screens with Gordon. Its a major install. I can see Michael is apprehensive of the hang. I am worried that Fabrica is so big it would completely over shadow the work.
Helen believes the use of the two larger screens rather than several smaller screens will facilitate a more sustained immersive experience for the viewer for several reasons:
The aim will be to have two large screens/projections facing each other across the gallery with the visitor driving the emotional dialogue between the two. During the residency at Lighthouse we have discovered that the camera and other technology necessary for operating ‘mind reader’ have frequently been a source of distraction for visitors, thus preventing a prolonged and immersive experience with Chameleon. The use of two larger screens will demand more sustained attention, and will lead to visitors focusing upon the two screens/film projections for a longer period of time, and therefore enabling a more qualitatively rich experience of emotional contagion. Importantly allowing visitors greater opportunity to register their own affects upon the exhibit and the overall affective quality of the gallery space. This latter point is of key significance as the exhibit sets out to foreground emotional contagion for the visitor not only through their interactions with Chameleon, but also through the overall production of a profoundly affective gallery space. The size of the screens/projections and their capacity to display film at such a scale will be another of way of producing and communicating the affective intensity of the exhibit –the sheer volume of their presence will be emotionally ‘demanding’ and hopefully overwhelming to the extent that in this context the technology itself takes second stage.
