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Alice in Berlin

Alice in Berlin

Interactive Installation (2012)

It’s a poor sort of memory that only works backwards – Lewis Carroll

Alice in Berlin slyly evokes our fantasy of childhood innocence to lead the audience on a hallucinatory trip into today’s global chaos. Each scene of the interactive installation builds on the audiences physical participation to question our place in history and individual accountability.

Initially the audience is passive for a short animation as Alice leaps off the page. Alice lures us into a topsy-turvy world where 19th century images collide with iconic moments of the 20th century. In front of the looking glass, fantasy and reality merge as Alice fluidly mirrors the viewer’s every move. A surreal landscape leads to a contemporary world of global change. Alice disappears and we land firmly back in contemporary Berlin

 


Please also see Ethel, Al, Turing Machine.

Created (program/animation) by Ruth Sergel.

White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane on Surrealistic Pillow.

Thanks to Peter von Salis, Kay Kastner + Multimedier Schlachthof, Mark Coniglio, Antonia Humm, Victoria Rothe and Helmut Tausentaufeld.

Exhibition: Arcilesi Homberg Fine Art (NYC), Out of Line Gallery (Chicago), Multimedier Schlachthof/ 48 Stunden Neukölln (Berlin).

Magic Box

Magic Box

Interactive Documentary(2009)

Magic Box melds 19th century illusionism with current technologies in the guise of a pre-cinema device. The box hangs from the ceiling with brass viewing tubes on either end. Peering inside the device, each participant watches a film that is completely invisible to the other viewer. At the same time they can see right through the box into each others eyes. Levers on the side of the box allow the participants to select which of four films they will view. If both move to the end position, their hands will touch.

Each film inside Magic Box depicts a different aspect of 19th century hope and confusion that emerging technologies might at last allow us to cross the life-death divide. For the participant, Magic Box creates an intimate interaction with a stranger to probe the dissonance between real and virtual human connection.

 


Please also see Alchemy of Light, Alice in Berlin.

Magic Box has exhibited at the at the Shift Festival (Basel), 3LD Art & Technology Center, ITP Spring Gallery and the Hudson Guild Gallery (NYC).

Created (program/camera/edit) by Ruth Sergel

Performers: Luigi Coppola, Johanna Levy, Clara Palavesin
Music: Erik Friedlander, Michael Montes
Carpentry: Paul DiPietro

Magic Box is supported by a grant from the Experimental Television Center’s Finishing Funds program which is supported by the Electronic Media and Film Program at the New York State Council on the Arts. Thank you to ITP and 3LD Art & Technology Center

ETC Logo NYSCA logo

Arduino code
Isadora patch

Turing Machine

Turing Machine

Interactive Documentary (2007)
Created in collaboration with Gian Pablo Villamil.

Turing Machine utilizes a re-purposed typewriter as a model Turing Machine to depict the life of Alan Turing, the father of modern computing. Reknowned for his role in breaking the infamous Enigma code during World War II, Turing was later persecuted for his homosexuality.

For more information on Alan Turing please visit the Alan Turing Scrapbook and the Turing Archive for the History of Computing.

 


Please also see Ethel, Al

ITP Spring Show (2007)

Created by Ruth Sergel + Gian Pablo Villamil

Exhibition ITP Spring Show (2007)

Al

Al

Interactive Documentary (2005)

A portrait of homeless artist Alfred Carlo based on his stories and paintings. The audience moves physical objects which reveal and manipulate documentary video of Al’s multifaceted life as painter, vet, raconteur and man of the street.

 


Please also see Ethel, Turing Machine

Al was presented as a work-in-progress at the Troika Ranch Live-I Workshop at 3-Legged Dog in New York.

Al was presented as a work-in-progress at the Troika Ranch Live-I Workshop at 3-Legged Dog in New York.