Designed by Chris Milk
The Treachery of Sanctuary is an experience of birth, death, and transfiguration and the creative process. It projects the transformation of the participants’ shadow on a white panel. It is an older project, Milk made 10 years ago but it is still simple and impressive.
The work consists of three 30-foot high white panel frames suspended from the ceiling on which digitally captured shadows are reprojected. A shallow reflecting pool sits between the viewers and the screens. In the background, an openFrameworks application utilizes the Microsoft Kinect (Kinetic Connect Controllers) SDK for Windows and infrared sensors. This talks to a front end running Unity3D in which articulated 3D models of birds interact with the shadows captured by three hidden Kinects.
In the first panel the body disintegrates into birds, the moment of birth or the moment you have an idea. The second panel is representative of the critical response, eighter by yourself or the outside force. This is what it feels like to have your purest expression picked apart by a thousand angry beaks, it represents death. The third panel, where you sprout the giant wings, represents the transfiguration. When you overcome death and the idea is transformed into something larger.
Thoughts
You can see the artist behind this project. Overall, it’s a great illusion to transcend into a bird, it is pretty magical to see your shadow transforming. Not that immersive but perception wise, a very nice project.
References:
The Treachery of Sanctuary https://www.sundance.org/projects/the-treachery-of-sanctuary
The Treachery of Sanctuary http://milk.co/treachery
Meet Director Chris Milk And Check Out His Latest Installation The Treachery Of Sanctuary https://www.vice.com/en/article/4x4jyb/meet-director-chris-milk-and-check-out-his-latest-installation-ithe-treachery-of-sanctuaryi
