Project X

If you could artificially extend your life to have a longer future, would you? What does life mean if there is no memory of it? What happens when you die? What gives meaning to your life? What have been the most salient experiences thus far in your lifetime? These are just a few of the questions this interactive theater production aims to help the audience answer.

I collaborated with Hand2Mouth Theater to create a number of interactive and time-sensitive installations which served as stations the audience could participate in. A few of these were: an interactive timeline where participants could write down critical moments in their unique past and then tie these experiences to and actual timeline; memory buckets where participants could deposit ‘memory chips’ in the buckets that described specific memories (the most memorable experiences became most obvious at the end of the event); a giant suspended block of ice that melted throughout the course of the event to reveal artifacts that signified the time-sensitive concepts or events. I also created exhibits for ‘the museum’ which examined the motifs of the show and provided a milieu for the audience.

The Timeline

Participants wrote down memories on tags and then tied each one to the appropriate year. Memories accumulated over the course of the show.

The Museum: Stage I

Far left: DNA sampling station. Participants had to profile their DNA by making a fingerprint and by leaving a piece of hair in a vial which was displayed in front of a lightbox.

Center: Accounts of near death experience. Participants listened to recorded accounts of near-death while looking at images that provided a visual description of the spoken story.

Right: Lightbox with slides taken from a medical anthology of human health (blood cells, body parts, x-rays, etc.)

The Museum: Stage II

The first appearance of the timeline (far right) and of the memory buckets (center stage). Also included was the evidence of time passing: a melting block of ice with computer chips inside, all of which eventually landed in the receptacle beneath.

Memory Buckets

Each bucket had a memory written on it. If the participant could recall the event, they placed a ‘memory chip’ (a small silver washer) into the bucket. The buckets were suspended with black elastic, revealing which events were most easily recalled and which were forgotten (based on the weight of the memory chips each bucket).