Liquid Cohesion

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Exhibited at Nuit Blanche 2012 in a public plaza nestled between Toronto’s financial district bank towers, Michael Alstad's Liquid Cohesion transformed a water feature into a utopian aquatic playground through a choreographed interactive video projection. Uniting human and marine life, the work was projected from an office tower down onto a shallow circular pool surface creating an open-ended virtual aquarium. The site-specific video projection infused a colourful and random whirlwind of nature as a counterpoint to the stark simplicity of the geometrically defined modernist courtyard. Participants movement along the video projection’s perimeter activated an animation layer suggesting fish swarm behavior and emergent patterns in nature. Performers walked through the water and interacted with the projection elements through the use of video motion tracking. Audio speakers positioned around the circular pool played an immersive sound installation composed of field recordings from Ontario and Quebec mixed with ambient music. The visual effect of Liquid Cohesion, an integration of human and aquatic forms, suggests a temporary suspension of the delineated boundaries between humans and the natural world.

Performers: Serenity Hart, Elisha Holst, Sasha Wentges
Special thanks to: Michelle Breslin - Lost World Sounds, Paul Degner, Carolyn Hurren, Mark McMaster, Camille Turner, Janet Hethrington, Corina Macdonald, Cathy Inouye, Shauna McCabe, Dan Surman, Umbereen Inayet, Simon Clemo, KD Thornton, Leah Lazariuk and Phil Clemo.
photo credit: left column images mntbiker404