The City of Perth is sharing screens in real time between Guangzhou (Guangdong Province, China) and Perth, in a project titled ‘Peoples Screen’ – a video installation using a variety of digital environments merging scenes of both cities in a virtual world.
This is the first time this installation has occurred in Australia, following successful runs of the project between Berlin, Germany and Riga, Latvia (titled: Occupy the Screen, 2014) and for the UK’s BBC Village Screen at the Glastonbury Festival (‘Picnic on the Screen’, 2009).
Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi said people can come along to the Northbridge Piazza and visually interact with people in Guangzhou in real time, to intermingle and participate in spontaneous performances in a virtual space.
“We are thrilled to be hosting ‘Peoples Screen’, which has been commissioned by Public Art Lab Berlin for the Connecting Cities network partners – Northbridge Piazza and the Guangzhou Light Festival,” Ms Scaffidi said.
“Perth and China share a unique and close relationship, so it’s fantastic to see an event combining multimedia art, technology, and cultural interaction, occurring between our City and Guangzhou.”
Developed by artists and researchers Paul Sermon and Charlotte Gould from the University of Brighton, UK, the ‘Peoples Screen’ is happening simultaneously at the Northbridge Piazza and Guangzhou Light Festival, China between 15 - 29 November from 7pm.
The artists Charlotte Gould and Paul Sermon said the installation adopts a playful and open approach to public urban video screens to create a truly interactive ‘People’s Screen’.
“The way it works is we take live oblique camera shots from above the screens in each location, where each audience is situated on large blue ground sheets. Linked via a live video-conference connection, the audiences are brought together on screen using ‘blue-screen’ chroma-key video mixers,” Mr Sermon said.
Charlotte Gould said as the merged audiences start to explore this collaborative shared space, they discover the ground beneath them as it appears on screen, locating them in a variety of surprising and intriguing anamorphic environments.
“These digital backgrounds directly reference their social and cultural setting, containing converged scenes of Perth and Guangzhou in a ludic virtual world,” Dr Gould said.
“We were inspired by 3D street art and computer games, and the historic films of Lumiere contemporaries Mitchell and Kenyon, whose films of Edwardian public crowds in the 1900’s present striking similarities to the way we’ve seen audiences react to our own urban screen interventions.”
WHAT’S ON LISTING
‘PEOPLES SCREEN’ GUANGZHOU LIGHT FESTIVAL
15 - 29 November, 7pm – 10pm (Wed 7pm – 8:30pm)*
Bridge time and space as Guangzhou, China and Perth, Australia cross in real time for the ‘Peoples Screen’. Who will you see? What will you do? Come along and be part of this virtual space. ‘Peoples Screen’ has been commissioned by Public Art Lab Berlin for the Connecting Cities Network partners Guangzhou Light Festival and Northbridge Piazza.
FREE | visitperthcity.com | 08 9461 3368
* The screening on Saturday, 21 November is between 7-8pm
Issued by Rachel Davison, City of Perth, rachel.davison@cityofperth.wa.gov.au | 08 9461 3432