After two years of hustling and armed with some 2000 images gathered from residents of Hyde Park, Matthew Slaats is ready to present his interactive Hyde Park Visual History Project at the Drive In theater in Hyde Park.
Matthew was in Beacon on Saturday and gave me a quick rundown on this tail end of the project and the added technically interactive twist he's incorporating into it.
The projected collected images and accompanying sound will be influenced by movement of bodies in a set location on the grounds of the drive in.
Here's Matthew's description from the project's Facebook event page:
The Hyde Park Visual History Project, developed by artist Matthew Slaats, is a community‐centered artistic project that engages the elaborate evolution of the local landscape and its inhabitants through images and sound. Serving as a dynamic meeting point for the community, the arts, and the history of Hyde Park, NY, the project builds an understanding of place through donated images, home movies, film, and audio. The collected visual and auditory material will be presented at significant sites in the community throughout the summer of 2009, culminating in an installation at the historic Hyde Park Drive In Theatre. For these installations, images of the past and present will meld into brilliant moments of color, all of which is supported by a sound track developed from recordings of children describing their hometown. Audience and environmental movement will control this interactive installation, becoming the driving force for the installation.
The Project Presentation will take place from 8 - 11pm on Saturday, Oct 17 at the Hyde Park Drive-In Theater on Rt 9. If you try to find this on google maps, it'll send you way up state, but I've marked it on a map right here.
Be sure to check out Matthew's blog on the project which chronicles its development and his thoughts that have emerged through his interactions with the public of Hyde Park and their memories of the place.
