Charlotte Gould, Paul Sermon: Urban Intersections

Title:

Urban Intersections

Artist(s) and People Involved:

Medium:

Projection, computer

Artist Statement:

This collaborative urban installation brings together multi-user virtual environment research within a site-specific Second Life urban intersection, designed and constructed for presentation at the Waterfront Plaza in Belfast. By reflecting on the ironies of contested spaces, and stereotypes in multi-user virtual environments, this project exposes the cultural identity, gender roles, digital consumption and virtual desire within this augmented world. The installation utilises live video streaming and motion capture as alternative navigation, with fire and water interfaces in Second Life, allowing the participants to interact and direct the narrative by their presence and movements immediately in front of the projection screen on the Waterfront building.

The installation environment in Second Life reflects on the surroundings of Belfast, drawing inspiration from its local history and community. Reliant on user interaction and input, the audience will form an integral part of this installation that aims to transcend borders and boundaries of culture and gender as interactive storytelling and memory building in post-conflict society. Staged in the regenerated landscape of the Waterfront Plaza, this utilitarian space will be used as a stage set to represent an augmented garden where we will explore the concept of perimeters and territories, as a metaphor of the local social history. As the participant leads us through this virtual landscape, first and Second Life inhabitants come together ‘face-to-face’ on screen. The participants complete this artwork as a live digital mural is revealed on the facade of the Waterfront Hall building.