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Sometimes I make the shape of a hug with my arms and imagine you inside it
Tom Dugdale
On view at Hopkins Hall Gallery
Sometimes I make the shape of a hug with my arms and imagine you inside it is a cross-disciplinary, multimedia collision of theatrical situation, video, original songwriting, and installation by Tom Dugdale, Assistant Professor in the Department of Theatre, Film, and Media Arts.
One at time, visitors step into a private, immersive installation whose arrangement of scenery and objects suggests a surreal listening room. Two video projections dominate the space, weaving in and out of relationship. Scattered everywhere are what appear to be lyric sheets for songs, furiously marked up and annotated. In the center of the room, an audio device loaded up with music invites the visitor to play any track they wish, to assemble their own soundtrack of love and loss, to unravel the mystery of this strange space.
The project experiments with handing over control of the installation to the visitor, allowing them to modify and shape their own experience based on their interest in, or boredom with, the work. It also explores how we listen to music and how the emotional landscape of the listening experience might be mapped in physical space. What if your favorite band made your favorite album into an immersive environment? What stands to be gained in this translation, and what lost? And finally, the project wonders if you can sing yourself, or somebody else, back into the world.
