Ethereal Landscapes

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Description (in English): 

Ethereal Landscapes is an interactive computer artwork that employs language in the form of barcodes as the interface between a physical object and a virtual space. The user is immersed in a generative video and audio database synchronized in real-time through scanning the barcodes on each page of the photographic artists’ book. This collaborative piece challenges traditional notions of the book-object (as static and non-aural), and of video/audio (as passive and linear) by integrating the interactivity of turning a book’s pages with projected moving images and sound.

Mirroring the interconnectedness of the formal level, Ethereal Landscapes investigates the relations between life as seen on a biological level and our quotidian human experience. The images from the book are referenced throughout the video; their combination with found and created sounds entwine together in a poetic arc around the processes of life, the passage of time and our un-deniable mortality.

(Source: Artists' description for ELO_AI)

Technical notes: 

User Directions: Scan the barcode on each of the book’s pages to trigger video/audio. Pages can be read & scanned successively or in a non-linear progression. Scanning the title page provides author information and the barcode at the book’s end summons a ten-minute sequenced video.

Screen shots: 
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Record posted by: 
Scott Rettberg