Part Two: A Description of the Works

The exhibition that has resulted from the investigation consists of three interactive video installations.

1 . Robin Petterd, Wake, 2002, interactive video installation, dimensions variable.

Wake is the first installation the viewer encounters in the gallery; it seeks to evoke the sensations of water wrapping around the body that occur when entering the water from a beach and the relative calm once past the surf. Stopping and pausing in the surf causes swimmers to lose their balance with the environment. The force of the wave can push them under the water, or it can cause them to stumble. The surf swimmer needs to find balance with the energy of the waves breaking, to dive under the waves or swim against them. The sensation that Wake evokes is the opposite to surfing a wave and being in tune with the momentum of the sea.

In the gallery there is an image projected down onto a bed of sand and an image on the wall. When there is movement in the gallery the imagery on the floor projection is of waves rolling to the shore, with accompanying sounds. When the system senses that the movement has ceased, an image of a wave breaking appears on a wall of the gallery and the sound of a wave envelops and fills the space. If there is a continual lack of movement, the image on the floor becomes a quiet, soft blue blurred image and the wall image disappears.

When the system [1] senses that recent activity in the gallery has been more than the historical average, the waves that appear on the wall are softer. In the opposite case, the waves that appear on the wall are harder. The less a viewer moves, the fiercer the wave; the more the viewer walks around the installation, the more softly the wave breaks.

2 . Robin Petterd, Dropping, 2002, interactive video installation, dimensions variable.

Dropping is contained in a small space, in which two rear projection screens float. On these screens are images of waves lapping as if the surface of the water was at the viewer’s eye level. The light and colours from these screens reflect around the gallery. When the system senses that movement in the gallery has stopped, the viewpoint slips down beneath the water. Compared to the other imagery, these images are calm; the still green light of the imagery reflects around the walls of the gallery. By standing midway between the two screens a viewer can interrupt the beam from the projectors and become part of the images. When movement occurs again, the imagery erupts in a jolt as the viewer returns to the surface.

Dropping suggests the sensory experience of floating at the surface and then diving down to be fully submerged. Humans can react in the water like sea mammals such as whales, slowing down to a meditative state and using less oxygen. This allows some people to be able to dive to depths of more than fifty metres with only a lung full of air. The deaths and accidents that happen from this type of diving do not happen because of a lack of oxygen, rather on the way back up to the surface a diver can black out after a moment of ecstasy because of an excess of carbon dioxide in the blood. It is this physical reaction to submersion, of slowing down, and the contrast to floating on the surface and being pushed around by the water that is the focus of Dropping.

If recently sensed activity in the gallery indicates more movement than in the past, the descending sequence is only short and the imagery played is close to the surface while the viewer is still. If the system has sensed that the space is quiet compared to past events, the descent is longer and the footage played while the space is still comes from the bottom of the sea. The slower the movements of the viewer, the longer and deeper the descent is.

3 . Robin Petterd, Under, 2002, interactive video installation, dimensions variable.

Under suggests the feelings and sensations that relate to looking up at the surface of the water while submerged beneath it. One of the most prominent aspects of this is an image of the bubbles ascending from breathing out. The work consists of a round image projected on a screen suspended from the ceiling. As the viewer is detected moving under the screen, a torrent of bubbles rising to the surface of the water erupts. Pausing causes the imagery to settle down to be a soft rippling image of the sky seen from under the water.

The bubbles are louder and longer if the sensed activity is greater than past detected events. When the sensed activity is less than that of past events the bubble s played are quiet and softer.

There are forty different sounds for the system to choose from when the space is still. These sounds are used by each of the installations. The number of sounds played,

the panning of the sounds and the level of the sounds is controlled by a sine function and the average of the activity levels of all the installations.

[1] This is explained in further detail in Appendix Three.

This page is part of the web version of 'Liquid Sensations: Evoking sensory experiences with interactive video installation art' written by Robin Petterd as part of a PhD by studio practice at the Tasmanian School of Art, The University of Tasmania.

robin@otherdge.com.au