Bren O'Callaghan » interactive

A Whore for the Gore

bren — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 14:25:07 +0000

Peaches Christ / image: Jose Guzman Colon

What better date than Friday 13th to reveal the details (with some surprises still withheld) of the International Premiere of All About Evil; the directorial feature debut of cult horror hostess, Gore Couture icon and director Peaches Christ / Joshua Grannell. Appearing at Cornerhouse as part of Abandon Normal Devices (1 - 7 October), tickets will very soon be on sale - and are set to disappear just as quickly! I'm looking for contributors, volunteers and flat-out fabulous audience members, so read all about it, see some advance snapshots, roll the VT and get in touch!

Atmosphere

bren — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 14:57:41 +0000

Christiane Cegavske: Blood Tea And Red String

It's all systems go (frantically mashes buttons of imaginary control panel) for a forthcoming collaborative project at the generous invitation of Mark Daniels at New Media Scotland and Inspace Gallery, Edinburgh. As part of official fringe activity for the Edinburgh International Film Festival, I'll be presenting two films with live, immersive elements as part of Atmosphere. Programmed in response to cinema auditoria built in the early 20th Century that used elaborate architecture, art and design to create a fantastical setting in which to watch a film, Inspace are re-imagining this concept using networks of sensors, algorithmic software and embedded art devices.

The Call of Cthulhu: copyright HPLHS

For this series I'll be proudly lifting the lid upon Christiane Cegavske's hauntingly beautiful stop-motion animation for adults - an astonishing 13 years in the making - Blood Tea And Red String (Saturday 19th June), accompanied by a vintage tea party. Alternately, Inspace will become Arkham Sanitarium for HP Lovecraft's The Call of Cthulhu (Thursday 24th June), filmed in Mythoscope to appropriate a vintage 1920s feel. Beware sleeping alien deities from the dawn of time! You should see how cranky they are when they wake up. Complementary medication will be provided.

For more on Atmosphere and to book your free tickets for these and other titles in the limited series (only 60 persons per individual screening), click here. Recently featured in The Skinny.

Eye Candy

bren — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:19:01 +0000

Hungry Hungry Eat Head from Bren O'Callaghan on Vimeo.

It's tough when you're in competition with 2098 shows in 265 venues in a city that for a month each year becomes home to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the largest arts festival in the world. Tough, but not impossible. Thanks to Hudson-Powell, Joel Gethin Lewis and the leap of faith required by City of Edinburgh Council who were very polite about my asking if they wouldn't mind if we beheaded their citizens and placed them in a giant cartoon for the afternoon.

After this, our beta launch, we went on to delight the city of Liverpool during AND: Abandon Normal Devices Festival of New Cinema and Digital Culture. If you too can find a way to step into your daydreams and earn enough to get by, I definitely recommend it. Read more about Hungry Hungry Eat Head here.

Tales of Two Cities

bren — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 22:27:48 +0000

With an OCD fury not seen since the woman in the Shake 'n Vac advert ground her Valium and mixed it with a glug of Bacardi, I've been plugging the cracks in this site and pasting up former production duties with a vengeance. My personal favourites A Wall is a Screen now have a page to themselves, as do the rapidly expanding MegaPhone team - flying the flag for those of us who see no reason why computer games should progress beyond the Atari era. Once upon a festival, The Light Surgeons conjured up a storm in a Gothic salon and The Royal Opera House treat us to no fewer than twelve outdoor relays in the past five years.

Into The Woods

bren — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:23:53 +0000

You can never have enough magic capes, as I discovered earlier last year. Shamefully I have only just got around to documenting this particular project for the Big Screen Liverpool from Charlotte Gould in partnership with moves, although thanks are also due to my friend Mandy Tolley for creating the most intensely red cloak with the biggest button I have ever seen. Yes, even bigger than Kirsty Allsopp's secret cache.

Chess pieces of the Gods

bren — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:53:35 +0000

Hand from Above from Chris O'Shea on Vimeo.

Tickled pink

bren — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 18:03:10 +0000

And so the curtain falls after five days, 15 x 1 hour slots and - as an approximate guess - some 5,000 open-jawed observers for Chris O'Shea's public space sensation. Inspired by Land of the Giants, a massive hand chased and tickled shoppers who jostled and whooped to attract the attention of the unknown (actually automated) operator. As one delighted lady of advanced years remarked, "I haven't had a man's hand all over me like that in years!"

It was especially gratifying that it should reach so many people who would never otherwise be aware of the AND Festival of which this was part, especially the elderly, families, children and those of foreign origin who were able to engage without any language barriers; humour being universal.

Saturday saw a six-hour stretch and double bill with the second appearance of Hungry Hungry Eat Head following this Summer's debut at the Big Screen Edinburgh. Creators Joel Gethin-Lewis and Jody Hudson-Powell had added some new animated elements, resulting in pulsing alien brains, panting tongues and blinking eyes to enhance the experience. Everyone loved clutching and waving the cardboard markers, freed from the snobbish associations of pocket hardware and somehow more magical for it. "How do you do it?" was the often repeated question, and being present in the space we were able to explain the method for different levels of comprehension.

It's great to be able to lift the lid to those of all ages on what can seem out utterly baffling, especially via face-to-face so it remains conversational in tone. It's this aspect in a sense that offers true interactivity, while repeat insistence even when told otherwise that the hand is controlled by a living, breathing person (with some playfully accusing total strangers - "Is it you? Have you got the remote in your pocket?"), offers a fascinating insight to human psychology in attributing human characteristics... in this case, of a benign bum-tickling reincarnation of Benny Hill!

Squish squash

bren — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 21:54:03 +0000

The Hand From Above

Chris O'Shea and I first met when I was lurking in an online forum, dashing from my spider-hole to entrap the tastiest prey/interactive talent. Only he bit back (not the face Chris, not the face!), erring on the side of caution and we've been circling each other ever since. It took every last drop from my scent glands, but now we have him... for both myself (Liverpool, Edinburgh) and all the other screens in the family to nibble on. Oh, what a tasty treat he will be! His reward is a significant new screen commission - The Hand From Above - to debut in Liverpool during the AND Festival and tour the entire network thereafter. Unsuspecting pedestrians will be clutched, tickled, stretched or removed entirely in real-time by a giant deity that will treat us with the disdain deserving of our insignificant species. More news as the Pantheon allow it.

Weapon of Mass Hypnosis

bren — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 16:12:43 +0000

Hungry Hungry Eat Head

Despite standing beneath God's own shower nozzle for two days straight, the skies cleared and the sun appeared for a perfect three-hour stretch to allow us a (mostly) dry premiere of Hungry Hungry Eat Head at the Edinburgh screen. Despite competing with 1,200 other events in the biggest cultural festival on Earth, we attracted some 500 participants from passing footfall alone. As only four persons could take part at any time due to a compromise between marker size and camera position, which dictated how many we could fit in the screen frame at any one time, we hit an average of 40 'players' every 15 minutes.

Hungry Hungry Eat Head

I say players, but one unexpected effect of the mesmerising soundtrack from Sound & Sons was that many just stood hypnotized, transported to a beatific state of retro TV bliss, rocking on the spot - staring - pacified and oddly becalmed by the sight of furry cuboid with fangs in place of their own fair mug. This was a beta version pending further development prior to the next appearance as part of the AND Festival at the Big Screen Liverpool on Saturday 26th September, which will be fully pimped out with further enhancements (responsive animated features overlaid upon the public video feed). Not one person queried the purpose of what we doing. If they had, I would have asked them: when was the last time you just played for play sake?

Joel Gethin Lewis and Jody Hudson-Powell

Once again, as I witnessed during the delivery of Glastonbury Village Screen, the self-imposed barrier between adults stepping into the same lungspace as children reared it's boggle eyed, Daily Mail-mache head. At one point, a group of a dozen young adults took turns stepping up one at a time as there were children upfront, until one of those present said "For Chrissakes, they're only kids, they're not gonna bite!" So effective is the exclusion zone around a child-not-your-own, that a sign reading Beware of Unaccompanied Minor would be more effective on a garden gate than the traditional canine threat.

Favourite moment - the American lady who ran down from the penthouse suite of the adjacent Sheraton Hotel with her daughter to join in after spotting us through the window, then asked if we were bringing it to New York. If you have the sofa ma'm, we have the passports! Again, credit due to Joel and Jody (and the absent Luke). You bring shame upon we mortals.

Bad head day

bren — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 16:54:35 +0000

It's coming! It's less than a week to go until the one-off play based event at the Big Screen Edinburgh on Saturday 15th August, Hungry Hungry Eat Head. Graphic markers will be distributed on site between 2pm and 5pm with replacement participants every 5 - 10 minutes. Jody at Hudson-Powell has just sent across this sneak pic of one of dozens of bizarre, animated character heads that continue to move and change during the live experience.

As Leslie Crowther would say (if you lived in the UK during the 80s and watched a lot of TV)... "Come on down!"