Visitors in front of the documentary, their movement glowing as energy around the archive film
Try New ThingsSE26Room 2 · History’s energy▶ The walk-thru, on film

An installation in SE26, skellefteå hall of rebels

The documentary wall

An interactive documentary film. Everyone in the room is tracked by a depth camera, and becomes one with the story by becoming energy.

Where
Room 2 · History’s energy, Skellefteå Museum
You
Step in. Become energy.
Built with
Depth camera · TouchDesigner · Generative music in Ableton

01 The idea

Become part of the story

Archives are usually behind glass. Here the documentary plays on a wall, and you are in it.

The film tells Skellefteå’s industrial century: mines, power stations, smelters, the people who worked there. Everyone who steps into the room shows up in it, not as a picture of themselves but as energy, running through the same story.

The more of you there are, the more energy there is in the film.

02 How it works

Bodies in, energy out

  1. A camera follows everyone in the room.
  2. Each body becomes energy: glowing light that moves with you and flows through the documentary.
  3. The music is generative and follows the room, filling it with the full piece, rhythm and all.
  4. A whole school class becomes one big field of energy in the film.

Got something big to say? Let’s make it a place.

Linus Johansson · linus@trynewthings.fail · The whole exhibition, room by room