Eavesdrop and New Media

Abstract

David Pledger is founding artistic director and producer of the Melbourne based, multifaceted company, Not Yet It’s Difficult (NYID). On his recent project, Eavesdrop , presented at the 2004 Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney Festivals, he collaborated with Executive Director of the i-Cinema Centre for Interactive Cinema Research, Jeffrey Shaw, to produce a 360-degree cinematic landscape that invites the user to explore the scene before them from a podium-like user console.In a kind of purgatorial club, the characters share intimate conversations that explore certain moral, spiritual and psychological conditions, while the user/audience assumes a role that is both detective and director as s/he ‘eavesdrops’ on these interwoven stories. Described as ‘part game, part real-time filmmaking, part spectator sport, part magical realism’ (NYID), Eavesdrop expands the borders of the cinema screen and allows users to navigate their own path through the multi-narrative, multi-layered, theatrical terrain.

Rosemary Klich spoke to David Pledger about his work on Thursday 20 January 2005 at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney.