This multimedia typographic performance involving the public took place at the Victoria & Albert Museum in 2014 and in 2015, amongst Raphael’s cartoons. One Word At At Time explores the liminal space of interaction happening in the constant back and forth between virtual and physical spaces.
This collective process is based on a classic improv theatre exercise: in a circle, a story is started, with each person in turn adding one word. Following similar rules, visitors are encouraged to gather as small groups and pose together as the different letters of a word of their choice, with the help of bright blue sleeves in front of a black background. Each word pursues an on-going story told to and by the public, one word at a time, as I take a picture of each contribution with a phone and feed it live to a twitter flux with the keyword #1wordatatime, where people can access it and follow the story.
A bespoke piece of software developed by Jérôme Rigaud instantly feeds the images/words bookmarked by this keyword onto a webpage. The narration collaged on the screen is projected live in the same room, for visitors to follow the story and decide on a word as a contribution to it.
Screenshots of the webpage and of the Twitter feed were the story appeared live, one word at a time, as the collective performance was taking place at the V&A. The unravelling story was broadcasted live on a screen in the room.
Concept, production : Amandine Alessandra
Production assistant : Hasan Gözlügöl
PHP / Javascript programming : Jérôme Rigaud
Commission : The Victoria & Albert Museum, London
Performance, typography, programming
