THERE!
V2 / EXSTREAM


Description:
Distance and proximity are two opposite notions. But in certain situations like when we travel or in transitive places, distance and proximity meet.
It is similar on the internet: information are simultaneously here (on the screen) and there (on the server).

« There! » speaks about travel and in between time/space. It is an online interface which generates movies using texts, audio and video sequences. The narrative object evolves between discussions by mobile phones and stories happening on train, car or plane, linked with the videos by red keywords. Each time you visit the website you will find a different story.
« There! » becomes a platform that is open to other artists who can add their own videos and use it.

Process:
During the residence, we would like to focus our research on interactive video and database narrative .

An online interface:
Our idea is to develop a nonlinear object, which mixes text, sound and video. The elements come together through a generative editing program based on syntax, establishing a grammatical system (paradigm and syntagm).

A video platform:
The common topics for this project are journeys, distance and traveling from one place to another. We want to create or use images, sounds and texts relating to these topics.

For example, camera movements are major elements (pan, dolly, etc). These forms accentuate the subject of THERE!.

A generative editing program:
The narrative contents are based on three sets of texts. The first set, are interviews relating to travel and the traveling experience (tour, journey, quest, holiday trip, exile, etc). The second set, are conversations overheard in public transit spaces such as airports, train stations or underground. The third set, are people telling their version of a movie having something to do with transport.

We will establish a list of keywords for the database and this will allow us to label and link the videos, sounds and texts of the project.

THERE! can work in an automatic mode, a text generator draws words or sentences from the first two sets, alternating interviews and conversations in public spaces, so that the whole takes the form of a continuous dialogue.

The film resulting from this operation is a visual interpretation of the dialogue since it is edited depending on the way the text is laid out.

This audio-textual-visual film operates in autopilot, like any machine, as such it can go out of control, making us lose track of the story. At a certain time, textual-visual samples can be so short and junctions so many that we are no longer in a narrative process but in a purely rhythmical stage.


Technic:
flashplayer
highband connexion

Credits:
Production : V2 lab for exStream-project
Project Manager : Lobke Hulzink
Thanks to : Anne Nigten, Eliane Roest, Brigit Lichtenegger, Stephen Kovats, Hans Beekmans, Thijn van der Velden, Lia, Natalia Marrero, Jesus Pacheco, Reynald Drouhin, Sven Gareis, Sonia Cillari, Willy LeMaitre.

Events:
demo in V2, thursday 24 june 2004