The Huge Entity
The Huge Entity is an interactive installation by Sam Meech, created specially for the Big Screen as part of moves09. It uses the movement of the public to create vapour-trails of colour that reflect and distort their journey through the open space. Using a camera on top of the Big Screen to provide a live video feed, the images are processed in real-time using a graphic programming environment called Isadora.
Isadora was initially created to realize the performances of Troika Ranch, a media intensive dance company co-directed by Isadora's creator, composer and media-artist Mark Coniglio. Isadora reflects over 20 years of practical experience with realtime interaction. Sam received personal tuition from Mark and incorporates similar methods in providing animated backdrops for live theatre productions.
On one level, The Huge Entity is a giant living wax crayon etching of what we perceive as ‘reality’, in which the people passing through the space are revealing the colour beneath. On another level, it highlights the way we navigate around one another and explores the idea that we are not just a being in time, but a being through time.
The piece was launched a part of moves09 with a performance intervention by dancer Mary Prestidge and friends, using the installation and the movement of the public to create a new work that looks at elements of flocking, exploring the ways that individuals influence each other within a group.
“I was trying to think about how a work or any creative intervention in a public space changes the energy of that space and the people. The title came from a science and philosophy website set up by Daniel Rourke, which had loads of interesting writings on science and theology, exploring ideas that I always wanted to visualize – ideas of space and time being somewhat malleable, people being connected, the idea of a body as energy.” – Sam Meech
The Huge Entity features reactive soundscapes by composer and sound artist Amos. Following moves09, the installation also appeared at the Glastonbury Village Screen 2009 at the heart of the festival site at The Meeting Point in William’s Green.