Abstract
This paper examines spectatorship within the space of surround cinema, through critical reflection on three case studies, our recent practice-as-research into 360 aesthetics and sense of place, undertaken with ICCI, Innovation for the Creative and Cultural Industries, for the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad programme in the South West.
Surround cinema is created by five HD video projections onto a continuous screen wrapped around a circular space. The spectator enters the darkened hemisphere through a tunnel, and is then surrounded by a seamless cinema. It is a beyond panoramic format, unbounded - you have mobility, the freedom to follow what is glimpsed at the periphery of vision.
Our first case study, Verge 360 is direct animation of small plants in ultra close-up. Nectar (2010) explored the contrasting spatial affects of Burrator Arboretum, experienced through the foraging of solitary bees, and the intense activity around the hive. Finally, Teign Spirit 360 combines HD video and digital photography with 8mm home movie footage, screened in a twenty one metre dome on Weymouth Beach.
Digital technologies allow us to synthesise material from an array of sources, and then present these mediations in a space that is similar to the immersive environments of expanded cinema. Surround cinema seems to offer video art a poetic place for the corporeal body that goes beyond what is possible in other exhibition spaces. Physically positioned as an active inhabitant in a filmic space, the ‘seeing everything’ spectator is autonomous, yet surrounded, always looking towards somewhere, on the threshold…
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Number of pages | 0 |
| Journal | Default journal |
| Volume | 0 |
| Issue number | 0 |
| Publication status | Published - 2012 |
| Event | Exhibiting Video Conference - University of Westminster Duration: 23 Mar 2012 → 25 Mar 2012 |