Surface Tensions
Surface Tensions is part interactive installation and part theatre performance. As visitors interact with the environment they are pulled into a confrontation with invisible characters who inhabit the space. Surface Tensions is intended to be a ghost story for the connected age.
The performance starts when a visitor sits down in one of the two chairs or manipulates an object on the table. Visitors begin to hear spatial audio of a couple eating dinner together. The couple’s conversation is banal and familiar; however, if the visitor moves any of the dishes on the table the couple will eerily mention them (“pass the salt”, “this soup has gone cold”, “please stay”).
As visitors interact with the environment, emotional tension gradually builds in the couple’s conversation. If visitors continue to manipulate the environment the couple will grow suspicious and the fourth wall will be broken culminating in a final showdown between installation and visitor.
Role: Creative Direction, Tech Development
This project was completed as a master’s thesis for Parsons Design and Technology program and was awarded first prize at the 2016 NYC Media Lab Summit.
While designing this project I was fascinated with the idea of gradually implicating a visitor in a narrative twist through their interactions. Could the visitor also become a character in this performance?
The audio that visitors hear is completely dynamic and is built into a response system that rearranges itself based on what visitors are doing in the installation. The narrative system logic takes in data from sensors scattered throughout the environment, seamlessly rearranging the dialogue to create a responsive script. The installation has multi-channel directional audio and is filled with hidden speakers and sensors. The entire system has over 300 unique dialogue cues and was built in MaxMSP.
A looping narrative system that responds to environmental input.
Additional Credits
Script: Rosalind Paradis and Lorne Svarc
Actors: Ryan Natalino and Brandon Finegold
Sound Recording: Alchemy Post Sound
Special Thanks to Corey Brown, Marko Tandefelt, Sven Travis, Alex Joseph, and Alchemy Post Sound