Schwelle I

Schwelle, Part I is a thirty-six minute audio/visual performance exploring the experience undergone at the threshold of the dissolution of the body and consciousness. Shot in High Definition video, the work is front projected onto a single screen and consists of three overlapped and synchronized projections that form a panoramic image with up to 8 channels of surround sound.

Over the course of the performance, the spectators are taken on a powerful journey through changing landscapes of fleeting images and sound. A sweeping light from the darkness that suddenly illuminates the space, everyday images of people emerging from a subway station in a snowstorm and a barren snowscape give a sense of the invisible and uncontrollable forces lurking behind everyday experiences.

As the image landscape becomes increasingly abstract with Rothko-like colours and dense walls of sound, Part 1 builds toward peak intensity, transporting the viewer through the threshold stages of dying and dissolution.

Schwelle I is inspired by the Tibetan Buddhist concept of the bardo: the in-between state between death and rebirth, or the exhalation and inhalation of breath.

Location
Tesla - Transmediale 2007, Berlin, Germany, February 2007
Estudios Abiertos, Buenos Aires, Argentina, November 2006
Elektra Festival, Montreal, Canada, May 2006
Material
Computer, Matrox triple head splitter, 3x 3000+ ANSI Lumen DLP Projectors, screen, audio interface, 8 channel sound
Collaborators
Concept/Direction/HD Video/Sound: Chris Salter
Collaboration Sound: Daniel Grigsby and Philip Viel