Topic: The art of Jeffery Shaw
- PaulIsaac 0518
- Oct 8, 2024
- 2 min read
Updated: Oct 8, 2024
[SM1701 independent research]
Name: Paul Isaac Cheung
Student number: 58636300
"I've always wanted to create bridges between the imaginative space of art and the physical world that people inhabit..."
ConFiguring the CAVE immediately gave me this digitalizing futuristic vibes [the name of the installation artwork], like the movie - matrix, creating this digitalize illusion experience to viewers, this immersive environment is what he calls " expanded cinema ".
[The installation artwork that I am particularly drawn into... ]
" The term "expanded cinema" is used to describe a medium or an immersive environment that pushes the limits of cinema and challenges the one-way relationship between the audience and the screen. " By Jeffery Shaw himself defines it. The coFiguting the CAVE installation is the definition of "expanded cinema",
The installation was made in 1960, Tokyo, Japan. First, the artwork creates this conjunction of body and space theme by using audio, visual and the wooden doll at the middle of the four-wall projection room. The four-wall projection room creates this 360 degree audiovisual experience, the visual; by using multipule cube like sturcture projection projects on the ground, side walls and the roof. The audio; Jeffery installed 4 speakers at each corners of the roof, the audio sounds would bounce from one wall to the other, creating this 360 degree immersive environment experience for the viewers.
coFiguring the CAVE also include an interactive design, which is the wooden doll at the middle of the room. Viewers would interact the wooden doll and whatever parts of the doll was moved, the projections and audio changes as well. This pushes the limitation of cinema, which is the engagements between the story and the viewer. The interactive doll influence the viewer's narrative of the story through the actions they did in the installation. This creates a new role for the viewers - co-creators, for the installation as they would the one who creates their own narrative of the artwork than being a passive observers.
The installation changes the traditioal cinema and challenges the one-way relationship between the audience and the screen. The relationship is the storytelling, a traditional cinema tells story through a passive observation, the audio and visual gives out a fixed or not flexible storytelling, because it based on the conflict of the story, beginning, inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution. No matter how confusing the director creates his story, we all know at least who is the protaganist and the conflict of his/her story. But "expanded cinema" challenge that tradition and creates a new role for the audience, enhancing the engagement between the cinema and viewers. The interactivity is the key on creating that effects, the viewers will have their own personalized experience and based on their experience shows different outcome and storytelling, which creates their own version of "cinema".
Overall, Jeffery Shaw has perfected the term "expanded cinema" to a new level with the work -coFiguring the CAVE, the visuals from the projections, immersive audio experience and the interactivity of the wooden doll provides, combining together as one "cinema" installation.
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