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You have left a party late at night or in the early hours of the
morning and you find yourself in a transformed city. You start
to run...
Run Motherfucker Run is an interactive installation whereby
anyone in good physical condition may try his or her luck in a city
of empty streets, disserted intersections, ominous alleyways and
unexpected obstacles. When you take position on the treadmill before
an enormous 8 x 4 metre screen you are subjected to a mix of film
and 3-D imagery. The distance you run on the conveyor belt is the
same distance you will cover in the virtual city in front of you.
By quickening your pace, the acceleration of the belt as well as
the speed of the image increases and depending on your running behaviour
and the directional choices you make, the progress of the film is
determined. A film with an atmosphere somewhere between a thriller
chase and urban horror.
The interface is a manipulated industrial assembly line with electronically
variable speed. With a range of 0 to 30 kilometres per hour, the
treadmill measures 5 x 2 metres. Physically the interface will not
allow the most natural course of navigation through the virtual
environment. On the contrary, it is an individual element with a
will of its own. The conveyor belt can only move straight ahead
and you must move in order to see the image. Although you are free
to determine the speed of the belt, only if you run fast will you
get an optimum image at full brightness. As you slow down the image
fades. So physically there is a mechanized pressure to keep up the
pace and an urgency to hold onto the imagery of the world in front
of you. This in combination with the tangible power of the machine
creates a temperamental balance between control and non-control
of the situation you voluntarily entered into when you first stepped
on the treadmill.
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