Video Womb

2008-09-29T15:00:00.000-07:00

VIDEO WOMB Re/Mixing Mixer
//Accepted proposal for Eyebeam Event//

At the heart of every maze lies a secret destination.
A hidden chamber, a distant tower, an unexpected
turn leading to the minotaur. For the final MIXER at
Eyebeam’s current location, we propose to create the
ultimate secret destination, the Video Womb, a hidden
room at the heart of the party, where the party itself is
on display.

Video Womb is a fully immersive audio-visual
experience. Eyebeam’s Trojan Wall will be turned
into a cozy room, where an undulating, carpeted floor
will invite partygoers to sit or lay down. They will
be able to watch a video cycle on the ceilings and
wall of the womb: images of the party, captured from
video cameras placed throughout the maze; visual
extracts from Christina Kral’s video diary, of day-to-
day life in New York; and video feedback. Additional
small screens are mounted on the walls, providing a
more personal experience. Dangling along the walls
of the womb will also be old telephone handsets
and headphones with only one ear piece, playing a
soundtrack of slogans, quotes, random thoughts, even
the noise of the party itself, recorded by microphones
placed throughout the maze. This soundtrack, playing
into one ear, will mix with the ambient noise drifting
through the thin membrane of the Womb, to create an
additional layer of audio intoxication.

The Video Womb is envisioned as a respite from
the party, a chill out room with a twist, a place for
wallflowers and party watchers to play the voyeur.
Accommodating four or five people at a time, guests
are required to sit next to each other in the small
space, creating a new intimacy that is unavailable to
the crowds still moving through the maze. As the live
VJ-set cycles through a twenty minute arc of audio
and visual material, the mood inside the womb itself
changes, from the hallucinogenic to the wistful to
the contemplative to the triumphant and back again.
Guests can remain inside for the entire cycle, or return
to the womb throughout the evening, always opening
the door on a new experience.

From the maze itself, the Womb will tantalize viewers
eager to discover its secrets. With its twelve-foot
walls topped by a pulsing beacon, the Womb will be
visible throughout the maze. Seen from a second floor
platform; seen across the room from a break in the
scaffold; viewed over the shoulder of a band playing
above the crowd: the Video Womb beckons the
curious. Part of the fun lies in the challenge of finding
it: we imagine that while many pathways will lead to
the Womb, some of them will dead end on the wrong
side.

Video Womb is a magical destination, one in which
MIXER itself gets remixed. It’s a space for dreaming
and free association, being ready to plug in, drop out
and drift away.walls topped by a pulsing beacon, the
Womb will be visible throughout the maze. Seen from
a second floor platform; seen across the room from a
break in the scaffold; viewed over the shoulder of a
band playing above the crowd: the Video Womb beckons
the curious. Part of the fun lies in the challenge of finding
it: we imagine that while many pathways will lead to
the Womb, some of them will dead end on the wrong
side.

Video Womb is a magical destination, one in which
MIXER itself gets remixed. It’s a space for dreaming
and free association, being ready to plug in, drop out
and drift away.

Building the Womb

2008-09-29T10:58:00.001-07:00

Set up for Mixer 2008 at Eyebeam

2008-09-29T09:52:00.001-07:00