Paul Devens: Carry Off

Carry Off is an interdisciplinary project with live multi-channel sound, video-recorded and projected act / choreography and a moving projection-surface.

With Carry Off I relate personal escapism or retreat from everyday life to the individualized experience of pop music. Illustrated by the iPod; users color the perception of the surroundings with a personalized soundtrack and thus, withdraw, symbolically, partly from public life. Hence, this reflects the notion of individuality (although pop is predestined intrinsically for a large audience and is usually largely positioned by its industry).

Three video projectors each show one of three actresses, while sitting behind a desk. Boredom makes them carry away by an imaginary tune playing in their head. Unavoidably this results in body-movements and drumming on the desktops.

Each of the projectors have a different focus-point. During the performance the screen moves very slowly forward, going from focus to focus. This causes the actresses, one after one other, to appear from a blur and again disappear into it.

Sound follows its own course and also underlines the relation with the video in an unsynchronized way. The use of one smaller speaker, directed towards the projection screen together with a normal stereo setup, enables spatial capabilities of the sound. This way, the technical setup makes it possible to project the sound from a distance towards the audience, as well as surround the audience within the stereo-image. Curated by Manon Bovenkerk / Maaike van de Wiel
Carry Off, 2007, Urban Explorers Festival, CBK Dordrecht (NL).

http://www.pauldevens.com

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• art
• soundart
• installation
• performance
• videoart