Dennis Del Favero
2002
Interactive
Video Installation
Pentimento is a computer based interactive video installation
utilizing an innovative vision based movement detection system developed
by the computer scientist Andre Bernhardt. The story recreates events
leading up to the discovery of a decomposed and unidentified body
on the outskirts of Sydney. Following the discovery, a brother and
sister, who are incestuously involved with each other, are arrested.
They accuse each other of murdering their father.
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Installation: interior view |
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The installation takes the form of an octagonal room. Each of the
four walls in this octagon operate as an independent screen and acoustic
system. Pentimento works in a manner similar to an interactive
jigsaw puzzle, somewhat in the tradition of the computer puzzle Tetris.
There are a number of narrative layers and points of view within the
layers. To begin with, in the first narrative layer there are two
versions of both the brother and the sister, twins in a sense, a guilty
brother and an innocent brother, a guilty sister and an innocent sister.
In the second narrative layer there is a guilty father and an innocent
father along with the Room itself, which has its own perverse view
of the proceedings. All the points of view are equally credible.
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Installation: Axonometric view |
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The installation walls operate either independently or in synchrony,
depending on the viewers' movements. If viewers restrict their movements
to a series of stationery points within the room they are able to
activate the first layer of narrative, for example either the innocent
brother's or innocent sister's point of view. If viewers maintain
a constant movement through the space they are able to activate,
in addition to the first narrative layer, a second layer of viewpoints,
namely the father's and that of the room. Narrative in Pentimento
becomes a complex interplay of these contending points of view and
forms of interaction, a voyage in search of a point of stillness
in a sea of perplexing and fluctuating possibilities.
Exhibited at:
ZKM, Karlsruhe. 2002; Kiasma, Helsinki; ICC (InterCommunicationsCentre), Tokyo; Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne, 2003; Galerie Andreas Binder, Munich, 2003; Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney, 2004; Sprengel Museum Hannover, 2005
Director, Producer and Designer: Dennis Del Favero
Application Programmer: André Bernhardt
Writer: Stephen Sewell
Composer: Brett Dean
Sound Design: Tony MacGregor
Sound Engineer: John Jacobs
Stylist and Designer: Karla Urizar
Voice-overs: Lenka Kripac, Matthew Edgerton, James Marshall Napier, Peter Kowitz, Tony MacGregor
Actors: Hollie Berrie, Andrew Dalton, Thor Thorsen
Compositing: Greg Ferris
Produced with the assistance of Cinemedia's Digital Media Fund, Victoria, Australia
Funded by:
Australia
Council for the Arts
Australian Research Council
International Grant: iiC_inema
College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales.
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