Advanced Sculpture, 2014

Project 3: Interactivity

Project 3: Interactivity
Intention Statement

For my interactive project, I engaged my audience through auditory commands that engaged their senses and immersed them within an imagined world. Using dreams, the subconscious, and the inception of audio into one’s thought stream as the basis of this project, I created a narrative made of 4 different scenarios. The 4 scenarios reflect these kind of dreamy and nightmarish scenes in which the user is left vulnerable to their audible surroundings and in order to progress through each scenario, they must succumb to the command of my voice. By  employing the use of headphones for listening purposes, I intended to create a kind of internal, mental, and intimidate connection between myself and the user where I embed my voice into the subconscious of the user’s mind, and my voice and the subliminal sounds accompanying my voice, integrate themselves within their thoughts. My main goal for this work was to engage my users emotionally and mentally and activate their other senses through an auditory means.
           

I engaged interactivity by utilizing the sensory experience of audio to emphasize and activate an imagined sensory experience. The user is moving their body constantly as they respond to the audio. As the audio commences, the audience is instructed to isolate themselves from the group so that the effect of the experience is as intimate as possible. They are then instructed to assume a sleeping position by laying flat on their backs and closing their eyes throughout the entire process. They are then led through a series of commands and scenarios, from covering themselves on an imagined bed, to trying to stay afloat while balancing on their backs in the middle of the ocean, to laying on the bed of the Amazon rainforest to awaiting their doom on a conveyor built leading into a fire pit. To emphasize a kind of rush of emotions, I employ the technique of overlaying the audio, which contributes to the overall dreamlike, trance like state, where thoughts are shifting, overlapping, colliding with and contradicting one another. The intent is to have the user remain in this relaxed position but there body and mind are working hand in hand in response to the commands and the sounds that they are hearing. To create a kind of flood of emotions and anxieties, I layered a clip of my voice overtop another clip of my voice to create a ghostly, almost eerie effect which, when coupled with an emotionally-charged and dramatic theatrical score, enwraps the user within a gust of heavy and strong emotions, leaving them weak sometimes. My intent also with the overlaying of audio is to overwhelm the user with these various sounds of nature which are typically calming but when paired with sounds of industry and dramatic musical scores, the tranquility of the scene is overshadowed by the anxiety created from the explosions of sound, quickened pace in my voice, and overlapping of voices and commands. In all, I engaged interactivity by having the user willingly participate and surrender their mind to my command through their auditory senses.
           

If I could go back and improve one thing, I would have created a more intimate space for the viewer so that they were completely alone and removed from the outside world and had nothing to detract their attention from the experience. This improvement can may be executed in the form of blindfolding the user so that they are completely blind to the outside world and even more vulnerable to it or create a head unit or something that they could put their head or body in that projects the audio while fully immersing them within the audio experience. I would have also not used as many emotionally-driven musical scores because I found that at times, the experience became more of a theatrical experience rather than an imagined and sensory experience. Yet overall, I am pleased with the outcome of this work and I hope to move towards create a space that engages the other senses in a more physical and tangible way.

Audio File

Dream Dialogue