The Waiting Room

Interactive digital video projection environment 12 x 12 x 6 metres
2 large scale video projections, colour, multi-channel interactive sound
In collaboration with Sue Hawksley (Choreography) and Stuart Jones (sound)

Produced by Victoria Preston Associates, London, UK 1998
Exhibited 1998 in the Old Victorian Dining Room, Sheffield Railway Station, UK 1998
Funded by the Arts Council of England, Northern Arts, Photo98 and Midland Mainline.

The Waiting Room is an interactive installation using two screens and high resolution video projection and two computers with a remote visual sensing system for viewer interaction. On each screen is visible a number of dancers. Each dancer is individually interactive, with the audience and with each other. The piece uses object oriented and behavioural programming techniques.

The work is loosely inspired by the Tango and the act of waiting, whether to dance or to catch a train...or waiting for the end.

On one screen the scene resembles that of either a waiting room, or the waiting "wall" by the dance floor. When the viewer approaches the figures they are triggered into activity, what they do being a function of their relations with the other figures and with the viewers. In certain circumstances one figure will invite another figure to dance. They then appear on the other screen as a dancing couple. Depending on viewer interaction they dance various passages from the Tango, change direction and also change gender roles.


Installation shots

video