An Outdoor Interactive Narrative Installation for The Conran Shop, NYC.
Advised by Marina Zurkow

Statement of Intent

Visiting The Conran Shop, I encountered a cabinet.? Suddenly, I felt compelled to touch its surface, open it, smell the inside, to hold it, lean on it -- to actually build a relationship with the furniture. ?I wanted to spend time with the cabinet. I wanted it to be part of my life. ?I believe the cabinet, even as it stands there motionless every day, has a heart to feel the life I¡¯m living and to share the happiness and sorrow in my life.

With this project, we want to represent, aurally and visually, how our lives are attached to our surroundings and how we, as human beings, are emotionally attached to the objects with which we interact, in this case, the furniture, filled with our bits of story, our thoughts and sentiments in life.

Installation Description

The installation will comprise a set of scenes, each built of three components ¨C a piece of furniture, a painted shadow, and a soundtrack -- that together create a narrative.

First, we will select several pieces of The Conran Shop¡¯s outdoor furniture as the bases of the scenes. We will use outdoor furniture because it is suited to withstand the changing weather conditions. The illustrations on the following page are provided as examples.

Second, each piece of furniture will have a painted shadow interacting with the shadow of a human figure, also painted. Their interaction will attract the audience¡¯s attention, and the narratives and emotions the audience creates to comprehend these interactions will tell the stories between the furniture and the person.

Third, a low volume soundtrack will be played. The audio will be heard only if the audience approaches the shadow or sits on the chair, bench or pot. This will integrate the audience into the scene. The audio content will be small talk, a monologue, a sigh, a breath or a kiss. It is intended to be very emotional, subtle and abstract. Because the soundtrack does not tell a specific story, the viewer can engage with the scene for as long or as briefly as he or she wishes. The audio will reflect the subtle relationships between the person and the furniture.

Sample Scenes (with Explanatory Narrative)

Scene I: Wine Glass and Bench

The shadow depicts a lady having wine with a bench.? We are giving a personality to the bench.The scene is romantic. The sound of swirling, sniffing, sipping, and savoring will be played; some words and subtle suggestions of romance will be integrated; the audio will be low and subtle.

Scene II: Cage and Pot

The shadow from the pot represents a person sitting, holding tightly and talking to an empty cage. A soft female voice and bird singing will be played.

Scene III: Rain Boot and Chair

The shadow personifies a woman sitting on the chair trying to take off her boot after having just arrived home, tired from a long day. The sounds of heavy breaths, sighs, the boot dropping on the floor, and the woman¡¯s monologue will be played.

Scene IV: Bench Scene

The painted shadow illustrates two children playing a handclapping game. The sounds of bright handclapping, laughter, and children¡¯s voices will be played.

Other scene ideas include a woman kissing a lamp or an individual reading a potted plant as if reading a paper.

Technical Description and Power Needs

• Shadows will be painted with erasable paint.
• Audio will be generated using an Mp3 player connected to speakers housed inside the furniture.To make the installation clean, avoiding the use of too many cables, we would prefer to use batteries to power the audio equipment.
• We would like to discuss the lighting with The Conran Shop. A supporting light source from the ground or behind each scene would provide optimal illumination.

Constraints and Questions

• Ambient sound will at times cover the audio of the project. Only when people are close to a scene will they hear the audio samples. We will use this constraint to encourage different forms of interaction between the audience and the installation.
• As the installation is expected to show in February, the lighting will be important, especially after 4 or 5 o'clock, when it will start to get dark.
• It will be cold outside in February, and people may not want to linger at the installation. However, as we have explained above, the soundtrack is continuously played and people may stay as long or as briefly as they wish.
•  Conran¡¯s has designated two areas for the installation:the area right outside The Shop and the garden area.? The area outside The Shop is more constrained, more intimate, and more connected to The Shop and lends itself to individual, solitary scenes. By contrast, the garden area is quite open and large and is more appropriate for scenes of social interaction involving multiple people. This difference may also influence our choice of furniture used in each location. Does Conran¡¯s wish to have both areas covered by this installation.
• Will it be possible to use Conran's outdoor furniture in the installation?