Cloud Eye Control

Final Space, Cloud Eye Control, 2012
Multimedia perfomance
Photo credit: Christina Ondrus
Exhibition location: 100-inch telescope exterior
Final Space tells the original story of a young woman, Ina, beckoned out of her lucid dream state by a malfunctioning dream sucking machine. The story explores technology in practice: There are many ambiguous moments where Ina’s real life body merges with the animation to create optical illusions through the use of multiple projector positionings. It also explores technology in narrative: The main character is constantly testing the relationship between her own memory and the technologies that may be shaping and or robbing her of her own experience.
Her lucid dreams transform into mouths that start commanding her moves. Her arms and head grow and shrink. The moon unfolds and reveals itself in abstractions and taunts. Ina finally decides to step out of the chaos and make a symbolic journey away from her oppressive landscape. Through puppetry, optical illusions, performance and video, the story unfolds about a woman who abandons her oppressive technological world, only to land on an inhospitable moon landscape. It is there that she must meditate and use rudimentary flash cards to re-imagine a world that contains warmth, home, friendship, and hope.
Cloud Eye Control is a collaborative performance group from Los Angeles comprised of three members: Chi-wang Yang, Miwa Matreyek, and Anna Oxygen. They create original works that uniquely combine interactive media with live performance. Since its inception in 2004 they have created three original works that have been presented both nationally and internationally. Whether through a re-imagining of Charles Lindbergh’s trans-Atlantic flight, the discovery of powerful crystals underground, or one woman’s interstellar search for a new home, a common theme in their stories is human adaptation in a technological world. To realize these stories, they project pre-rendered animation and live camera imagery onto various surfaces on the stage, and this imagery functions as scenery and virtual actor. Both high and low tech methods are used to allow the live actor to interact with the media. These methods range from custom-built interactive video software to the physical manipulation of video puppets. cloudeyecontrol.com