»MovieMovie« 
Light Box
Light Box
© Jeffrey Shaw, Theo Botschuijver, Sean Wellesley-Miller and Tjebbe
Keywords
Information
Jeffrey Shaw >
»MovieMovie«, 1967 - 1967
Co-Workers & Funding:
with Theo Botschuijver, Sean Wellesley-Miller and Tjebbe van Tijen
Technology
Display
Inflatable
Descriptions & Essays
This expanded cinema performance was specially created for the Experimental Film Festival in Knokke-le-Zoute. It took place in the foyer of the festival building, with the audience sitting on the stairs and balcony. Three performers (Jeffrey Shaw, Theo Botschuyver, and Sean Wellesley-Miller) dressed in white overalls first brought in the inflatable structure and unrolled it on the floor. Then it was gradually inflated while film, slides and liquid-light show effects were projected onto its surface. The architectural form of this inflatable structure was a cone with an outer transparent membrane and an inner white surface. The projected imagery first impinged lightly on the tightly inflated outer envelope and then appeared on the semi-inflated inner surface. In the intermediate space between the transparent and white membranes various material actions were performed to materialise the projected images. This including the inflation of white balloons and tubes, and the injection of smoke. The intention of this work was to transform the conventional flat cinema projection screen into a three dimensional kinetic and architetonic space of visualisation. The multiple projection surfaces allowed the images to materialise in many layers, and the bodies of the performers and then of the audience (many of whom spontaneously threw off their clothes) became part of the cinematic spectacle. In this way the immersive space of cinematic fiction included the literal and interactive immersion of the viewers who modulating the changing shapes of the pneumatic architecture which in turn modulated the shifting deformations of the projected imagery. A sensual conjugation of actuality and fiction was achieved through a mediated dematerialisation of their respective boundaries. MovieMovie was also a complex and innovative acoustic performance. The Musica Electronica Viva were closely involved in its scenography, creating an intense and loud density of electronic sounds that were interactively modulated by the musicians via a spatially distributed sound amplification system that was placed both outside and inside the inflatable structure. From within the performers and members of the public could manipulate the shape of the inflatable structure, dragging its skin in one direction and another, and in so doing change the shape of the acoustic spaces. Thus this soft interactive lightweight architecture allowed the public to dynamically modulate the live performance of the music and add another level of immersive conjugation of the body, architecture and mediated manifestation to the cinematic discourse.
Literature
Dixon, Steve. Digital Performance: A History of New Media in Theatre, Dance, Performance
Art and Installation. Leonardo Books, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007.
Shaw, Jeffrey. »Movies after Film - The Digitally Expanded Cinema.« In New Screen Media. Cinema/Art/Narrative, edited by Martin Rieser and Andrea Zapp, 268-275. London, UK: ZKM Karlsruhe and BFI London, 2002.
Exhibitions & Events