Concrete Playground

Humans and their desire to experience images of dazzling immediacy and sensory adventure were given a wonderful (but soon to be forgotten) gift in 1962: the ‘Sensorama’. A pre-digital and therefore mechanical device, the ‘Sensorama’ was designed by Mr. Morton Heilig, who celebrated his prototype as the ‘cinema of the future’ and the ‘theatre of experience’. Combining sound and 3D images with everything from manufactured wind to aromas, the excited Heilig had hoped that these sensory ingredients would awaken us to the potential of producing momentary realities within immersive environments.
 
Although Lynette Wallworth and Morton missed each other’s existence (through the accident and randomness of birth), I get the feeling they may have been friends had they met at a party or at some other event where people socialise. Wallworth, an Australian artist who exhibits both nationally and internationally, is a little like a technologically savvy mystic, often conjuring up moving images that respond to touch or our presence in the space. (A great delight if you have ever thought that images should be more attentive and courteous.)
 
A little too real to be dream-like and a little too dream-like to be familiar, Wallworth’s environments are an exercise in unexpected concentration and unusual exploration, often involving wordless narratives that attempt to emotively fertilize a sense of intimacy and empathy between the moving image and the participants moving body. And although the Wallworth experience is usually no roller coaster ride, it may offer a moment of sensory gratification and some time for healthy reflection.
 
So if you are worried and sceptical about a mindless sensory experience don’t be. While escapism might have a bad reputation with the diligent pragmatist in you, it is often necessary in order to uphold a daily routine saturated in insistent reality. The desire to escape is in fact a pragmatic one. Moreover Wallworth’s visual and sensory escape is founded in content, drawing on issues such as grief, fragility, belief and ecology in a way that won’t leave you with a sore throat (as though something had been forced down it).
 
So if you want to take advantage of an exchange Heilig and Wallworth never had you might like to schedule a visit to CarriageWorks, where Wallworth will present three interactive works: Invisible by Night, Evolution of Fearlessness, and her most recent piece, Duality of Light.

By Tom Melick