The Synergy Project (2007-09) is an immersive and poetic interactive video installation that investigates the manner in which meaning is created when varying narrative elements are juxtaposed. It consists of visual and aural phrases that can be chosen by visitors to create new relationships. The phrases are projected on a 27 x 10’ panoramic scrim and sound that surrounds the viewer. The computerized control panel in the center of the gallery sits on an ancient iron stand. The contents of these phrases are lush and quirky renditions of images from nature/technology, culture/politics, absurdity/humor. Some are images of significant actions by participants with props that the artist made for the project. Formal aspects of the clips allude to magic realism, ritual and abstraction.
The sounds and landscapes were collected from diverse locations with an emphasis on the pacific coast that is part of the Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito, California. The sounds were remixed and added to by composer Brian Harnetty. The result is part of the palette offered for visitors to explore their own narrative impulses in response to these subjects. Although the phrases are provided, it is hoped that the participant will experience some magic in their arrangement. Varied cultural backgrounds, experiences and intuitions will create new juxtapositions that can be fertile ground to inspire the next media storyteller in the gallery.
Variations on narrative structure in the written and filmic world are broad and can include poetic rearrangements of time, parallel storylines, flashbacks, simultaneous fact and fiction threads, etc. Technological progress has also affected these variations, with options such as random access to data (enabling plot-lines to shift in computer-assisted games and projects) and immediate access to global information. In addition, questions of authorship, originality, the intent of the writer and the point of view of the reader/ watcher are all important aspects of interpreting narratives. The Synergy Project allows the viewer/participant to affect some of these parameters.
Journal writing while at Headlands:
The atmosphere at the edge of the world is damp, as the hills heave their warm breath into the air. Operatic bird families pierce the gauzy blanket, content in their obscurity. The sounds are playful and profound, an alternating cadence shrouded in silk. Deep voices spill their call and response, each one scrubbed clean by ocean swells.
This is a place for searching. Without the promise of clarity my eyes reach for detail. Cottony edges of trees float in the fog, reaching over the invisible beach, the invisible sea, the invisible sign that proclaims dangerous cliffs and surf.
I know these cliffs are made of green and purplish stones because I walk on their ragged offspring. They skuttle noisily off the path and join their sisters who have thrown themselves into the sea. Spit up on shore, they become geological charms, polished in their tidal tumbler. I gather them by color, as if categorizing would make them more compelling.
I gather them as memories of this protected nest, cut off from the city by its geological prowess. Far from obligations of the everyday, far from my other identities, this gnarled haven is reachable only through a narrow tunnel that births determined travelers into its protected valley.
Video by Claudia Esslinge, Audio by Brian Harnetty
Thanks to Leslie Seiters, Ron Estes, Adia Millett, Alice Gould, David Heithaus, Jane Miller, Yana Forney,
Stephen DeSanto , Kate Skelly, Julie Brodie, Reed Esslinger
And for support for this project: Jack Esslinger, Headlands Center for the Arts, Kenyon College and the Ohio Arts Council.
The sounds and landscapes were collected from diverse locations with an emphasis on the pacific coast that is part of the Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito, California. The sounds were remixed and added to by composer Brian Harnetty. The result is part of the palette offered for visitors to explore their own narrative impulses in response to these subjects. Although the phrases are provided, it is hoped that the participant will experience some magic in their arrangement. Varied cultural backgrounds, experiences and intuitions will create new juxtapositions that can be fertile ground to inspire the next media storyteller in the gallery.
Variations on narrative structure in the written and filmic world are broad and can include poetic rearrangements of time, parallel storylines, flashbacks, simultaneous fact and fiction threads, etc. Technological progress has also affected these variations, with options such as random access to data (enabling plot-lines to shift in computer-assisted games and projects) and immediate access to global information. In addition, questions of authorship, originality, the intent of the writer and the point of view of the reader/ watcher are all important aspects of interpreting narratives. The Synergy Project allows the viewer/participant to affect some of these parameters.
Journal writing while at Headlands:
The atmosphere at the edge of the world is damp, as the hills heave their warm breath into the air. Operatic bird families pierce the gauzy blanket, content in their obscurity. The sounds are playful and profound, an alternating cadence shrouded in silk. Deep voices spill their call and response, each one scrubbed clean by ocean swells.
This is a place for searching. Without the promise of clarity my eyes reach for detail. Cottony edges of trees float in the fog, reaching over the invisible beach, the invisible sea, the invisible sign that proclaims dangerous cliffs and surf.
I know these cliffs are made of green and purplish stones because I walk on their ragged offspring. They skuttle noisily off the path and join their sisters who have thrown themselves into the sea. Spit up on shore, they become geological charms, polished in their tidal tumbler. I gather them by color, as if categorizing would make them more compelling.
I gather them as memories of this protected nest, cut off from the city by its geological prowess. Far from obligations of the everyday, far from my other identities, this gnarled haven is reachable only through a narrow tunnel that births determined travelers into its protected valley.
Video by Claudia Esslinge, Audio by Brian Harnetty
Thanks to Leslie Seiters, Ron Estes, Adia Millett, Alice Gould, David Heithaus, Jane Miller, Yana Forney,
Stephen DeSanto , Kate Skelly, Julie Brodie, Reed Esslinger
And for support for this project: Jack Esslinger, Headlands Center for the Arts, Kenyon College and the Ohio Arts Council.
Claudia Esslinger, audio by Brian Harnetty