“Sankari: The Ultimate Live Talk Karaoke” by Petri Kota, Minna Nurminen

Title:

Sankari: The Ultimate Live Talk Karaoke

Artist(s) and People Involved:

Performers:



• Minna Nurminen
• Petri Kola

Symposium:

• ISEA2004: 12th International Symposium on Electronic Art

Artist Statement:

Sankari Show is a participatory video show about Elias. Elias is quite a nice guy, but he is not able to speak – so he is a little bit helpless on his own. Actually, Elias does speak, but it is the audience that gives Elias their own voice. That is the genius of the show – what they say defines his future.

Sankari is an improvisation show offering people a fun way to perform in front of an audience. It is a combination of karaoke, drama and video game. “Sankari” is the Finnish word for a hero. It also means the main character in a story The format of Sankari is based on interactive scenes where the participant improvises with virtual characters. The scenes consist of small video fragments. We listen to the improvisation and choose how other characters react by showing different video clips, The story can develop in many directions depending on the performance.

Elias works in a bar, but he wants to get famous. He dreams of a career as a talk show host, and of the beautiful rock star, Laura. Tonight Laura and big TV-producer Anders are coming to meet Elias. For Elias this means a date and a job interview at the same time.

Can you help Elias in his tricky situation? Whether Elias succeeds or fails depends on what you say. If you screw up it doesn’t matter because it is Elias who screws up. And in any case the audience has a great time – whatever happens, Sankari makes you a great entertainer. Sankari is created by Petri Kola and Minna Nurminen and hosted by Zarkus Poussa. Zarkus has his highly danceable gig after Sankari, so the positive vibes continue.

Category:

• Performances