Vivaria is touring in Mobile States, opening at Artshouse (Melbourne) 4-7 Aug, now at Salamanca Arts Centre (Hobart) 11-19th Aug, Adelaide Festival Centre 24-27th Aug, Performance Space (Sydney) 30th Aug-10Sept. The setup at Sidespace Gallery in Hobart was irregularly arranged like a garden so there was distance between screens and no more than two could be seen at once. This was a good feeling with the presence of other video angles behind you and in the periphery so single screen viewing was not dominant. It had the effect of walking down the street with many aspects only partially visible in a landscape and made transcendent by the ominous presence of solo performers keyed into the scenes. Multiscreen peripheral experience is translated here as eyes of compact mpeg cameras showing a panopticon of virtual environments, usually described by the handheld cameras of tourists. Portal in New York on the other hand is showing a single screen, linear version of my originally multiscreen
The Cracks on the rooftop of Regina Rex Gallery. Below is another short excerpt derived from a Springbrook residency with
Ladyfingers, discarded but reused for Portal curator Janis Ferberg in her ongoing online exhibitions, using the web as exhibition environment in tandem with real space.
http://portalforvideo.com/portfolio/sam-james/
