Interactive Digital Art Installation visits the south-west.
An interactive, digital art installation, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, is currently touring spiritual spaces of southern England.
The art installation titled ‘In Other People’s Skins’ is the brain child of Terry Flaxton an AHRC Creative Research Fellow. ‘In Other People's Skins’ is inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci's The Last Supper. It consists of a large table covered in a white cloth and surrounded by chairs. Projected from above onto the white surface will be life size moving images of hands and arms of 12 people as they take food, break the bread, drink the wine. Visitors to the installation will be free to sit down at one of the 12 chairs and interact with the virtual guests - and to inhabit ‘Other People's Skins’.
Initially the virtual diners will be taking a simple 1st century meal of bread, cheese, wine and fruit. After a short time, the content of the images will change. Suddenly we might see an Indian family, a Chinese family, a modern English family or a Nigerian taking a meal. The food on the table, the plates and dishes, the colour of the hands and arms, the clothing and jewellery, all will be transformed so that the visitor finds themselves in a different century, a different world.
Terry Flaxton explains,” The act of eating together, sharing food, is a universal human experience, which crosses all cultural and religious boundaries, and the dinner table is the site where so much human communication takes place. The intention is not to create a piece based in any particular religion - on the contrary, the idea is to transcend religious devices and seek an experience which unites us.” Terry Flaxton has been a video artist since 1976, as well as an acclaimed cinematographer. His work has been screened on TV, exhibited at festivals worldwide and has received numerous awards and nominations. He teaches regularly at universities in the West of England including the University of the West of England (UWE) and Bath Spa.
The project’s roots are firmly based in and around Bristol. It started life with an earlier project by Terry, called ‘The Dinner Party’, which used some of the same digital techniques. ‘The Dinner Party’ is currently running at ‘Techne’ in Milan, Italy and has also been seen at: Phoenix Arts Centre Glastonbury, Dartington Hall, Glastonbury Festival, Bordeaux Quay in Bristol (as part of the Organic Food fair). Filming for ‘The Diner Party’ took place at the Wickham Theatre at Bristol University's Drama Department. Four Bristol restaurants were invited to get involved and all of them enthusiastically took up the challenge, providing a meal for 12. The eating of which was then filmed and became the basis of the artwork.
For more information on ‘Other People’s Skins’ please see the In Other People's Skins website.
Dates:
- Bristol Cathedral 1-13 April 2008
- Wells Cathedral 15-27 April 2008
- Southwark Cathedral 4-16 May 2008
- Bath Abbey 3-19 June 2008.
Image copyright Joe Lowe.