So far and yet so close, So close and yet so far

The Meetingpoint is an interactive installation meant to be used by two people.

The installation consists of a Video projection part and an Audio section.
 

Visitors can take places at the two bar stools each end of the table. On both sides they will find a headset with a microphone.

The black box in the middle of the table holds a projection screen; on the screen they will see their own face and the face of the person from the other side of the table, projected upon each other. Because of the small distance between the participants and the good quality of the sound in the headset, they feel very close to each other. The strange character of the video projection on the other hand gives a great feeling of estrangement.

On the table there is a green, a red and a blue luminous button. By pushing the green button one can call up sentences of a recorded conversation. There are two conversations between a male and a female voice. Both have an opposite theme: one conversation is reflecting on our telephone-habits and other social behaviour. The other conversation is very direct; a meeting in a bar, the voices are paying court to each other, one becomes a voyeur . This makes them both ground and disturbance for conversations.

With the red button statements of visitors can be recorded, they are mixed through the previously recorded conversations. Through the participation of the visitor the Meetingpoint becomes a dynamic system. The blue button switches between the Dutch and English recordings. The image is connected with the voices of the visitors. Your portrait will fade in and out, depending on weather you speak.

An installation by Hermen Maat:

Software and sound: Hans Kerkhof

Hardware: Rob Linders

Voices/conversations:

Susanne Visser and Roef Ragas

Dawn Mastin Marc Bellamy and Michael Gibbs