Image
A computer generated image of a woman with a pixie cute and wearing a white button down shirt projected on a panoramic screen as a silhouetted person looks on.

They Watch

Workspace Unlimited
October 30–November 21, 2009
Studio 1—Goodman

They Watch is an immersive art installation with virtual characters literally watching visitors. Several duplicates of the virtual characters – one man, one woman, and both portraits of the artists – surround and interact with visitors, who are tracked as they move about the physical space, and even projected into the virtual space. Years of research and development with game-technology have resulted in a 360° audio-visual environment, exploiting a 15-meter-wide panoramic screen and a 32-channel sound system. The subtle collaboration of the real and virtual agents and environments conflate to engender a hybrid space where the observer becomes the observed. Figuratively wearing a virtual camera causes the on-screen characters to approach and to retreat, analogously altering the soundtrack; characters that, as visitors will come to discover, are aware of their presence. They watch. Visitors’ movements activate visual cues and affect the characters’ spontaneous, unscripted behaviors, so that the installation’s visual and sonic compositions are uniquely influenced by the visit. The piece becomes a composition in movement whereby non-linear blends of real and virtual force visitors to consider perspective, agency, and the distinction between authentic and imagined as They Watch. Open Monday – Saturday from 12 PM to 6 PM (longer if public events are happening in the building) On Tuesday, November 17 @ 7:00 PM, EMPAC will host Full Immersion: an exceptional panel of international artists, engineers, and producers representing the evolving field of works created for the 360° panoramic screen

Dates + Tickets

Film/Video
Installation
Commission
Exhibition
They Watch
Workspace Unlimited
Friday 30
12:00 PM
October 2009
------------ thru ------------
Saturday 21
7:00 AM
November 2009
Discipline
Visual Art

Season

Curator
Production Credits

They Watch - 2009 Produced by Workspace Unlimited vzw Commissioned by EMPAC Art direction and production: Thomas Soetens & Kora Van den Bulcke In collaboration with Matt McChesney, Patrick Bergeron, Rene Morel, Marie-Eve Provincal, Hans Samuelson, and Marije Baalman. With the support of The Flemish department of Culture, the Flemish Minister of Innovation, the Flemish Audiovisual Fund (VAF), IWT, IBBT. Special thanks to Kathleen Forde, EMPAC team and RPI, Wayne Ashley, Steve Van Anden, Innobec Technologies, SkuadStudios, 20Q.net, Stoffel Debuysere, Sandeep Bhagwati, Chris Salter. © 2005-2009 The panoramic screen environment was developed by Jeffrey Shaw; ZKM Karlsruhe, Germany; iCINEMA at UNSW, Australia; and EMPAC. The frame for the screen was engineered and manufactured by Huib Nelissen, The Netherlands.