Words on Works
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Elective Affinities
Sara Roberts
sroberts@shoko.calarts.edu
The installation Elective Affinities (Fig. 1) [1] is a dynamic portrait of the relationship between a married couple and two close friends. The characters, their memories and their situation are adapted from a novella by Goethe, Elective Affinities. His story, which relates questions of passion and commitment to the chemistry of natural elements, features a complex relationship between four people. In this adaptation, each character is "played" by a computer that is networked to the other three; thus, each character is "aware" of the moods and movements of the others.
(Fig. 1)
In a dim room the images of four people appear on pedestals. They are arranged as four people might be in a car, two men in front, two women in back (a configuration I am told is called "riding redneck" in some states).
The background projected on the rear wall shows the road and landscape rushing away behind them. Because the characters are projected on half-transparent glass, one can easily see through layers to the characters and scenery behind.
There is a constantly fluctuating level of tension between the four people in the car. Occasionally a word or two is exchanged between them, but for the most part they are quiet, absorbed in their own thoughts. They are, however, very responsive to the gestures of the other three, shifting in their seats, making eye contact, looking away.
The viewer, when coming within a small distance of any one of the pedestals, activates a speaker in the pedestal and "overhears" the thoughts of that particular character. It is impossible to listen to more than one of the characters at a time unless there is another person in the room---the viewer must in a sense "elect an affinity" by choosing which character to listen to. There is no other way in which the viewer affects the piece; the four characters interact with each other, but the viewer is a fly on the wall (or the windshield).
An "Emotional engine," a program written for each character, cycles slowly through moods ranging from smug self-confidence to total despair. The emotional engine calls up appropriate videotaped expressions from the videodisc. The character's internal monologue, which runs constantly, is chosen from moment to moment by mood and subject from about 145 minutes worth of recorded material on the hard drive of the character's computer. The four characters are networked, and when one character glances at another a message is sent that tells who is looking and what mood he or she is in. The character's emotional engine will determine whether they look back or ignore the glance, but their mood will always be affected by these interactions.
The experience of the piece, the conclusions one might draw about the four characters and the details of their relationships vary greatly depending on what shifts of mood and allegiance happen while the viewer is in the room. The more time the viewer spends listening to the character's thoughts, the greater the possibility of piecing together a narrative, although a complex telling of narrative is not the primary intention of the piece. My aim is to portray the particular dynamic between the four characters, which can be readily observed by stepping into the room and giving the installation the amount of time one would give a painting.
Elective Affinities has been shown at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco and at the Williamson Gallery at the Art Center in Pasadena. It was shown in Copenhagen in 1996 at the Danish Film Institute and in 1998 will be part of a show of portraits organized by Jasia Reichardt at the National Portrait Gallery in London.
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Note
1. Elective Affinities runs on four networked Mac Quadra 660s controlling four Pioneer 8000 laserdisc players. The program was written in Hypertalk by Paul Tompkins and Sara Roberts, with additional programming and engineering by Palle Henckel.
| Copyright 1997 ISAST |
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