expanded cinema, augmented reality performance car rides
performed for several days between Exposition and Commerce Ave.as part of the show: Co-Recreating Spaces at CentralTrak, Dallas. An interview with eteam conducted at the occasion can be seen here
November, 2012
“100 Meters Behind the Future” is a live film that is being shot, acted, directed, edited, screened, watched and deleted in real time. It’s a film about delay, the expansion of cinema and the paranoia that creeps in when the mash-up of several time zones and realities escapes the logical explanations of the captive audience.
The screening room is the front row of a van in which one or two people are being driven around while following the action in double view – through the windshield of the car and the screen of the device they hold in their hands. (“100 Meters Behind the Future” was commissioned by the “For Real” Program at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in January 2012.)
“My name is Jeremy Massey. I was the driver of the “viewer” truck when eteam did their project “100m behind the future” in Dallas. You can see me in the picture below….. The neighborhood was in need of action, chaos, and variety so eteam gathered a crew consisting of a mysterious looking man in a trench coat, a zombie, movers, sanitation workers, a bicycle thief, a dog walker, and a wild child to bring the tour to life.
Once the crew was in place I would hand the participants an iPad and instruct them to help me navigate around the neighborhood. They had no idea what events would proceed, and questioned the safety of the beat up Texas truck.
Due to an ancient transmission, each tour began with the truck violently jerking into drive, which created a heightened sense of awareness. Once we began slowly rolling down the street the screen of the iPad would captivate the interest and curiosity of the viewer. They would glance up and down many times to see that the image on the iPad matched our physical surroundings, and began to offer directions and navigation for the tour.
As the tour progressed the participants began to visualize very peculiar pedestrian activity, safety hazards, bizarre street scenes, and an overall disconnect between the images on the screen and what was happening in front of our truck. Many questions and emotions began to arise from the viewers.
“Is this pre-recorded?…How is this happening?…Are we seeing the past, or somehow looking into the future?..”
“Please, just be Careful! We came very close to killing someone back there”
“Oh my God…Stop!…wait….What…..?…There is nothing there…This is why I stopped doing LSD.”
“Since when did Dallas hire attractive sanitation workers?”
“Is the child … where is the woman?”
I had no answers or insight regarding the unusual chain of events. I would scratch my head and just keep driving. Once the tour concluded the viewer’s were so confused, but also fascinated by what had just occurred. They could not explain what they had just perceived but took away a truly unforgettable and one of a kind experience.”