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Displaying Church and Plaza
Our aim
To present the notions and expressions of the church and plaza in Carúpano at Easter time made by the anthropology studygroup.
The church will be presented as the heart of the exhibition.
What we want to offer
The church will offer most of the in-depth exhibition content for the devoted visitor.
We want to present both emotional and informational aspects of the role of the Catholic religion and syncretism in Latin America.
The aim is also to provoke questions like: What is sacred, what is profane and how they are connected? What is the influence of politics in the religion?
The plaza will offer a place to sit down for a while, gazing at the park scenery or reading local newspapers, listening to the sounds of the plaza and perhaps catching a scent from the esoteric shop area.
The senses we stimulate
Visual, auditory, tactile.
Key elements of the space are the panoramas about the park and church interior,
hanging from the ceiling. The panoramas are used instead of walls or curtains to divide
the space into inside and outside of the church. This way the regions overlap and the
effective size of them is bigger, giving more open overall feeling. This openness also
emphasizes the manner people mix everything: from church they go dancing to the
beach and in the esoteric shop and homes there are saints as well as in the church.
Alongside the catholism lives the mysticism.
The panoramas invite the visitor to walk alongside them, through the
park and into the church.
The appearance and soundscape of the church:
Entrance to the church begins with the panorama. Walking near the panorama also
triggers echoed footstep sounds typical to church accoustics. There are pictures of
saints on the church wall with spotlights that light up when the visitor passes by, luring the visitor further into the church. The saints also have sound effects supporting their roles and atmosphere.
At the other end of the church is a video screen and a projector placed at the ceiling.
In front of the screen there are church benches. When nobody is sitting on the benches the
screen displays a still image of the altar that also function as a kind of façade
of the church when viewed from the plaza side of the space. The benches have pressure
sensors that trigger video playback, starting a 10 minute documentary with narration.
The documentary analyzes and presents following themes: procession, mass, wake, role of
the catholic religion, and syncretism.
The video sound is heard very faintly from the room speakers, serving only as a background ambience. Should a visitor hear and learn more, she/he may use headphones attached to the church benches. The video narration is only heard using the headphones. This way the space serves both the casual and more devoted guest.
When the video is in still mode, a quite calm, reverberant soundscape is used.
The acoustics of the space may rule out the use of a separate church soundscape. In that case, all church sounds are heard only with the headphones, except for an entranc e soundscape heard from a speaker behind the entrance panorama. The entrance soundscape fades in when a person is near the panorama, fading then out again when the person leaves.
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The appearance and soundscape of the plaza
The plaza kind of includes all the leftover space between the supermarket, esoteric shop and the church. It has benches where one may sit down and browse local newspapers (real ones!) or gaze at the park panorama.
The soundscape consist mostly of sounds emanating from the mercado and beach areas.
If it is technically possible, sounds of birds and people will be added.
Procession
The procession is perhaps the most anticipated event of the year in Carúpano. In the exhibition it takes place when the church video has been idle for 10 minutes.
The procession begins with drum sounds growing louder and moving from the beach and alley towards the church, luring the visitor to follow. When the sounds reach the church, the screen begins to show a video of the procession.
Place
The whole main room of the exhibition.
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The technical implementation
The video playback and church ambient sounds are controlled with a Power Machintosh computer running MAX. The plaza sounds and church entrance sound effects are produced with the main sound system engine.
Supplementary ideas
One key aspect of the procession is purple color: practically all children are dressed in purple dresses. Therefore we could add for example a subtle purple glow inside the church when the procession is starting.
Priorized order of realization
Obligatory:
Video presentation
Pictures of the saints
Panoramas
Benches, newspapers
Optional:
Spotlights
Video interaction
Procesion mode
What we need:
Obligatory:
Screen for the video
Data/video projector (min. resolution 640x480)
8 chairs for the church (already present at the museum)
8 Pressure sensors
8 Headphones
8 channel headphone amplifier
2 benches for the plaza (already present at the museum)
Local newspapers
Two panoramic big prints
5 Pictures of saints
Acoustic black textile for the saint wall
Spotlights (already present at the museum)
Church ambient
Video documentary (approx. 10 min)
Optional:
A Power Machintosh with MAX for the interaction
MAX software for playing the video and reading the sensors
A controllable 5+ channel lighting dimmer
Video about the procession
Still have to figure out (or the challenges)
Video: We are still uncertain how to stress the video. Should there be more interaction or is the linear narration sufficient?
Contact us
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