Jasmine Lee – Looking Outwards – 01

The interactive piece that I’m choosing to talk about is an exhibit I came across in the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art. The Visitors by Ragnar Kjartansson is a 64-minute music piece that uses synced video projection to create an immersive visual and audio experience for visitors.

Set up in a dark room behind curtains, visitors are drawn in by a chorus of instruments. Stepping in, they face nine different video projections placed on different areas of the wall. There are different performers in each projection and as music stops coming from one video, it begins in another video. The experience is especially interesting because of the way the performers seem to leave their respective videos and walk into the space of another performer. The performances together create a chorus that can only be experienced in the room of the exhibit itself.

A third-party recorded video of the exhibit by Ragnar Kjartansson at the Boston ICA museum.

This work is profound because it explores the potential of video as a medium to create more immersive experiences for visitors in a way that a single video cannot. It experiments with how 2D visuals can transform into a 3D experience by encouraging the movement of the viewer. The artist, Kjartansson, often uses repetition combined with music to explore the potential qualities of sound. Born to an actress and a director, Kjartansson was very influenced by both historical art and performance. He collaborated with other musical performers in a historical upstate New York house to create this piece.