In celebration of the Scottish Canadian animator, producer and director Norman McLarens 100th anniversary of his birth did the Quartier des Spectacles and the National Film Board of Canada 2014 an interactive installation. Inspired of McLarens own work the film Canon. The installation welcomed the audience to reconstruct the original movie by together with each other do the original choreography for the film.
They managed to do this with a booth that was located on the spot where the participants went in and saw others perform dance moves which they later mimicked with there on interpretation therefore creating a collective dance that grows more and more for every new participant.
The dance was shown on the façade of a close by building. In front of the façade where also cinema seating where you could sit and watch the dance evolve.
Thoughts
As long as technology is this piece of art pretty straight forward. They use the recordings of people and match them together with recordings of others to merge them into a dance video. That is not the technology that makes this piece interesting. It is about how it brings strangers together in a fun and different way. To be able to have interactive art pieces that brings joy simultaneously as it broadens the knowledge of a historical person, in this case Norman McLaren is the really inspiring aspect of this piece.
Something that could make this installation fail is if the participants choose not to follow the dance moves shown on the split screen in the recording booth. Which in that case leads to the dance not resemble the original. Others may also say that those person are the ones that truly evolve the final product with a new take on something old. In this I haven´t encountered any information regarding that issue while researching on the piece. However could I imagine this be a problem with a lot of interactive art if it comes to the point of someone not just doing what was expected but truly doing harm to the piece by being disrespectful and offensive.
As a last statement do I only want to add that I think it is a wonderful way of celebrate McLaren this way, by creating pice and be a part of what he created rather than an ordinary exhibition. Creators should be remembered by creating not by just reading about them.
Links
http://www.dailytouslesjours.com/project/mclarena/
https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/where-begin-norman-mclaren