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DOBRZE 2006 Etudes for three girls and a video camera it’s about three girls playing various games: but is it still a game if you are forced to play it? it’s about exposure and manipulation, about voluntary oppression, it’s about an image and the frame in which it is enclosed - no time limit, only special limit. it’s about mistakes and failure, about trying to do well; about trying without any purpose; and not for a reward, because there is none. “Dobrze” consists of two interactive installations and three videos, all featuring three girls filmed while acquiring various skills, conducted by the author – teacher – manipulator, Dorota Walentynowicz. In “Dobrze / the dance” – the girls where filmed while simultaneously doing a simple line dance. The installation allows the viewer to steer them, making them dance as one plays, speeding them up when one wants them to, but falling down at too high of a speed. A contact microphone is attached to a “drum” surface sending a signal to MaxMSP, which plays “Wait” state on no signal in, “Dance” state when signal is received and “fall down” / “misstep” state when signal is out of rhythm or out of sync or the speed is too fast. The intervals between “bangs” on the “drum” determine the speed of the “dance” film. The faster one “bangs” the faster the girls do the dance. In "Learning Jabberwocky" the video shows three girls filmed while memorizing seven stanzas long poem taken from “Through the Looking Glass and what Alice Found There” novel by Lewis Carroll. The poem is filled with difficult neologisms, which makes the video a peculiar study of linguistic mistakes and associations made during memory processes. In order for the movie to play one needs to stand on the indicated area, where a pressure sensor is hidden. If one steps off it the movie stops and goes back to the beginning, waiting for new signal to play – then the whole process starts over. Memorizing the poem took the girls 49 minutes and 49 seconds : this is also the total length of the video. |
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