THERE IS STILL TIME .. BROTHER
2007/2008
The Wooster Group,Directed by Elizabeth LeCompte,Developed with Jeffrey Shaw
THERE IS STILL TIME .. BROTHER was commissioned by the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA. EMPAC supported the showing of the work at Chronus Art Center.
Synopsis
Part I 10 minutes
Lionel (host): “Can you tell that’s New York?”
Lionel explains the nature of interactive 360o cinema.
Moira smokes a cigarette and stares at her video blog.
Tanner tells the story of Ft. Calypso around a campfire.
Part II 4 minutes
Tanner (Captain): “It’s a pitch black night. With a light sun rising.”
Lionel explains interactive 360o cinema again and plays a song.
Moira responds to questions from her bloggers.
Tanner leads the attack against Ft. Calypso.
Part III 5 minutes
Moira (blogger): “You keep talking about dead soldiers.”
Lionel demonstrates the 360o cinema by moving 180o around the circle and leaves.
Moira defends her position on the war and says goodbye to Lionel.
Tanner salutes the fallen soldiers and watches the end of the film.
This interactive installation — which takes its title from a banner visible in the final scene of Stanley Kramer’s 1959 film, On the Beach, depicting a post-nuclear apocalypse Earth — is a film about war and the ways that individuals respond to war. The installation offers the viewer control of a narrative displayed within a 360-degree video panorama. Seated in a revolving chair in the center of the space, audience members take turns controlling a virtual “window” to highlight discrete aspects of a story about British and French troops battling for control of Fort Calypso (a battle site in the French and Indian War) and a space where grotesquely enlarged children’s toys vie for attention with politically minded bloggers and unsavory YouTube videos. All the while, a mercurial host attempts to articulate the implications of this unique “narrative space." With each viewing, a new cinematic experience is spun out of the choices of individual audience members.
The Wooster Group (US) is an ensemble of artists who make new work for the theatre, dance and media. Under the direction of Elizabeth LeCompte and with its associates and staff, the Group has created over 40 pieces since its founding in 1976. The Group has cultivated new forms and techniques of theatrical expression reflective of and responsive to our evolving culture.
www.thewoostergroup.org
Elizabeth LeCompte (US) is one of the founding members of The Wooster Group.Since 1975 she has constructed—choreographed, designed, and directed—all of the Group’s productions, including nineteen theater pieces, five dance pieces, and nine works for film and video. LeCompte has received numerous awards and honorary doctorates from the New
School and California Institute of the Arts.
