2004 Rockefeller New Media Foundation Proposal

Abstract

Spectropia is an evening-length interactive media event. Projected on multiple screens, it is performed by two players with the participation of audience members at museums, festivals and public spaces. (A feature film and a home interaction version - combining WD and Internet delivery - will also be created.) Spectropia is a time travel drama set in the future and in NYC, 1931, after the stock market crash. It uses the metaphor of supernatural possession to explore new constructions of subjectivity and the anxieties brought on by consumer culture and emerging technologies. Unlike traditional movies, Spectropia is "performed" interactively using a unique mix of motion sensors, speech recognition and synthesis, and vocal triggers. Audience members, assisted by trained performer/tutors, can use physical cooperation to spontaneously unfold dialogue between onscreen characters; speak to the characters and have them respond; navigate through cinematic spaces; move a character's body; and alter and create the soundtrack. Spectropia has been supported by the Greenwall Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation MAP Fund, Langlois Foundation, LEF Foundation, NECA, NYFA, NEA, the ISA at Arizona State University, and The Banff Centre for the Arts.