Machine Project is the wonderful gallery / multimedia educational center and maker of happenings in Los Angeles. They’re on a roll with Big Ideas this month, so I thought I’d pass them along — aside from participating, they may inspire similar stunts in your hometown. (Just make sure you hire professionals if they’re going to do something dangerous, like jump out of a window. And don’t stare into the sun.)
First up: Los Angeleans, you have a chance to film a Matrix-style effect with a stunt man jumping out a window:
Part One: On Sunday July 6th at 6pm a stuntman will leap from Machine Project’s 2nd story window. We would like to invite folks to attend the leap, with a miniDV video camera (everyone’s got one nowadays, we can probably even supply you with one if you don’t). The videographers will be arranged in a large circle on the ground around the spot where the body will fall. They will document the leap and then turn over their video footage (tapes to be provided, unless you want to donate one). This footage will then be edited to create a very clumsy “Matrix” effect that suspends the stuntperson in mid-air with a 360 degree pan. We would like to get at least 40 people to film, so tell a friend.
(Contact us here if you know you’ll be attending and videotaping, and we’ll send you more info & updates: machine@machineproject.com)
"Interesting," you say. "But I don’t live in L.A., silly. And I want something involving the whole planet and a
1.9891 ×1030 kg helium and hydrogen furnace, boiling away in the blackness of space."
Fine. Wish granted:
Part Two: On Friday July 11th Machine Project will be presenting the edited stunt footage with a live video companion piece. For one 24-hour period an international circle of people will chase the sun around the earth. This would happen by having a participant in every time zone point their computer camera to the sky between 11:30am and 12:30pm, thus a human chain, one timezone handing off to the next, following the sun around the globe perpetually holding it aloft and feeding back “mid-day” to Machine Project via live video. This event/video would be projected in the space live for 24 hours.
I’ll try to participate in that one, except that I will have to find a place here in lower Manhattan where I can see the sky / sun. I’m not really thinking about jumping out of windows, just because of the building I happen to live in here in Manhattan. But shooting the sun sounds great.
If you get involved, or stage something like this in your part of the planet, let us know!
"A Practical Demonstration" Project @ Machine Project