Immersion/Inversion

"Immersion/Inversion," a film and audio installation, contains five segments ranging from two to six minutes in length, all of them relating to the underwater views of a river--views looking sideways into the water, and views looking at the outside world from below the surface. The project can be shown in two ways: as a projection made onto a ceiling, with the viewers lying down on a carpeted floor beneath, or in the traditional usage of a screen. In our first ceiling projection, in April 2019, we used the visual artist's high quality Moto cell phone projector. The distance between the projector and the ceiling or the above-the-head screen should be 10 feet or higher unless the venue's projector has the capability to make a large image from a shorter distance. The soundtrack includes digitally created music by audio artist Morgan McLeod and his on location recordings of the river with its tributaries; birds; and other ambient sounds.. (Note: in our first performance, the sound composer attended and used his soundtracks with a computer program that randomly chose measures to play, choosing and varying the sequences. We performed for three hours with a silent 22 minute projection on a loop, the sound coming from a speaker system unconnected with the projection. None of the silent five video segments sounded the same twice. For farther away venues we aren't funded to attend, I have put on a soundtrack to the video.) The experience looking up at the projection is like looking at the surface of the river from the bottom with a fish eye's view. When children appear above the river, it is as if you are underneath them. We also provided long, cushioned benches for those not comfortable with getting on the floor. If the venue does not have the requirements of this set-up, the film can also be shown traditionally on the regular screen.