Interactive new media installation, 2011

Paranormal phenomena are common in Asian films, literature, and popular culture. In Japanese folklore, for instance, yokai are a class of supernatural creatures that often shape-shift and play tricks on humans. This interactive, animated, and sound-based installation repeats a key moment in the 35mm film, Happy Ghost 3, when the lead ghost calls “home” through various phone booths throughout the city. The animated projection is an accumulation of hand-traced frames of the original film through rotoscoping. The film explores the interiority of the archive and, like an X-ray print, uses light as a means to make visible what we cannot normally see. This work uses the presence of audience members to trigger the projections and sounds; without their actions, the film lies unseen and unheard, leaving only the stark presence of the scenic and museological props.

With sound design: Antoine Bédard
Programming and electronics: Bobbi Kozinuk
Construction design: Minoru Yamamoto

Originally part of the LOST SECRETS OF THE ROYAL. Four newly commissioned works by Louise Noguchi, Daichi Sato, SoJin Chu and Cindy Mochizuki presented by  Liaison of Independent Filmmakers Toronto (LIFT), Reel Asian, the Blackwood Gallery, and A Space Gallery. Curated by Ben Donoghue and Heather Keung

Click here to view documentation excerpt

Photo credit to Robin Li