Shifting Intimacies: 2006, Video Documentary. (5m10s). (Dir. Keith Armstrong).
Shifting Intimacies: 2006, Video Documentary. (5m10s). (Dir. Keith Armstrong).
Shifting Intimacies: (2006-8), Spinning Body Image in Water, Projected Onto a Disc of White Sand. (Photo Keith Armstrong)
Shifting Intimacies: (2006-8), Spinning Body Image in Water, Projected Onto a Disc of White Sand. (Photo Keith Armstrong)
Shifting Intimacies: (2006-8), at ICA London, 2006, Participant Casts Dust Back Down Into the Space, ICA, London, England. (Photo Keith Armstrong)
Shifting Intimacies: (2006-8), at ICA London, 2006, Participant Casts Dust Back Down Into the Space, ICA, London, England. (Photo Keith Armstrong)
Shifting Intimacies:2006, Sand Runs Through the Fingers of a Participant. (Photo Keith Armstrong)
Shifting Intimacies:2006, Sand Runs Through the Fingers of a Participant. (Photo Keith Armstrong)
Shifting Intimacies: (2006-8), At the ICA London, 2006, Projection Onto a Raised Disc of White Sand. (Photo Keith Armstrong)
Shifting Intimacies: (2006-8), At the ICA London, 2006, Projection Onto a Raised Disc of White Sand. (Photo Keith Armstrong)
Shifting Intimacies: (2006-8), at ICA London, 2006, Interactive Image Projected Directly Onto Dust-Covered Floor, ICA, London. (Photo Keith Armstrong).
Shifting Intimacies: (2006-8), at ICA London, 2006, Interactive Image Projected Directly Onto Dust-Covered Floor, ICA, London. (Photo Keith Armstrong).
Shifting Intimacies: (2006-8), Body Image Projected on Raised Disc of White Sand. (Photo Keith Armstrong)
Shifting Intimacies: (2006-8), Body Image Projected on Raised Disc of White Sand. (Photo Keith Armstrong)
Shifting Intimacies: 2006-8, at ICA main theatre, London, 2006. (Photo Keith Armstrong)
Shifting Intimacies: 2006-8, at ICA main theatre, London, 2006. (Photo Keith Armstrong)

detailed_description

Shifting Intimacies is an interactive/media artwork by Keith Armstrong, Charlotte Vincent and Guy Webster that invites the participant to meditate upon and witness the human body disintegrating and transforming whilst in motion.

Each participant enters a large, dark space containing two circles of projected film imagery presented within an immersive sound environment. One image floats upon a disc of white sand and the other on a circle of white dust. Participants’ movements direct and affect the filmic image and spatialised audio experience. Throughout the work a layer of dust (an artificial life form) slowly eats away and infuses itself deep into the imagery and sound. This immersive work invites differing states of meditation, exploration, stillness and play, creating states of shifting balance that produce a heightened awareness of the body.

Each person has 10 minutes alone with the work. Their movement through the space continually affects speed, quality, balance and flow within the work. At the end of the experience they are invited to climb a lit platform and cast dust back onto the images below.

The work uses a range of technologies including interactive video (Very Nervous System), body heat sensors, custom built electronics, image databases, real time computational synthesis software (Cycling '74 Max), networking software, real time audio digital signal processing (Max MSP) and real time show control protocols. Controllable actuators also move physical material through the air.