projects
Throughput: an interactive digital installation
(1999)
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Experimental interactive media space by film critical studies Ph.D. student Kevin Fisher; presented at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.
Description of installation space
One at a time, participants walk into a black room, approximately 15'x20'. (There is a small entrance and exit on two opposing walls.) On the other two opposing walls of the room are projected two synchronized black and white digital video loops. On one wall, an archer (roughly life-sized) stands in an open field, about 30 feet back within the illusionistic depth of the image. On the opposite wall, a wooden target also stands 30 feet back within a similar open field. The archer methodically pulls one arrow after another from her quiver and shoots directly towards the fourth wall, and hence, towards the interior of the installation space. Each arrow that vanishes into the foreground of the archer's image appears out of the foreground of the target image, striking the target in the center. The room is equipped with quadraphonic 3-D sound so that each arrow is heard being fired from the bow, passing invisibly through the space of the room, and finding its mark in the space of the target image on the opposing wall. The arrow thus crosses three spaces: the illusionistic space of the archer image, the "actual" space of the darkened room, and the illusionistic space of the target image. The room will be emptied as much as possible of all perspectival cues in an attempt to reverse the hierarchy concerning the "real dimensionality" of the action space and the illusionistic depth of the images on the screens.
Description of participant interaction
When a viewer/participant walks into the space the archer continues shooting until the viewer crosses the path of the arrow with any part of his/her body. At this point the archer draws another arrow and point the bow directly at the participant wherever they are standing. Once the participant begins walking again, the archer turns and follows the movement with the arrow trained upon the participant. This following movement continues until the participant stops for a pre-determined amount of time. At this point the archer lets the arrow fly at a direct angle toward the position of the participant. The arrow passes into the foreground of the image, in the direction of the participant, and appears in the foreground of the target image, and finds its mark on the target. The arrow always reaches its mark on the target, no matter at what angle it intersects the participant. To the degree that the participant has moved to either side of the room, it appears that the arrow has actually moved in a curved arc. This sense of a curving arrow that always meets its mark will be reinforced by the effect of the 3-D sound. The balance of sound will be altered to corroborate this impression, and an effort will be made to create the sense of a sound-suspension at the point of impact between arrow and body. At this point the archer will return to the video-loop of drawing and firing arrows until the plane of the arrow's path is once again traversed. At that point, the game begins again.
I have chosen this weapon because of the arrow's ideal combination of speed and mass. The arrow is also something of a musical instrument—a "wood-wind", in the way it whistles through the air. In its absence of visibility, the sound of the arrow plays an important role in impressing its passage upon the senses. The goal of the project is to observe the degree to which the arrow will seem to actually pass through the room, and also, the degree to which the participant will experience the passage of the arrow "through them." This experience partially relies on the ability to create a bendable "sound-bridge" to simulate the invisible trajectory of the arrow's passage. Another crucial aspect of this piece is to show how participants relate and react to the actual space of the room in terms of the illusion of depth on either side, and in terms of the intersecting action.
UCLA HyperMedia Studio
102 East Melnitz Hall, Los Angeles, CA 90095
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