Let us imagine a straight line of unlimited length, and on this line a material point A, which moves. If this point were conscious of itself, it would, since it moves, feel itself change: it would perceive a succession. But would this succession assume for it the form of a line?

—Henri Bergson

Overview

Let us imagine a straight line is an interactive installation about movement, the first installment in my larger project for dancer, video, music, and live electronics called Studies in Movement. The work features six different installations, which can be displayed in different combinations. They include:

• Wall-mounted light sculpture

• Biometric table & interactive video

• Interactive whispering wall

• Animated telegraph & small-format video

• Large-format video & 5.1 surround sound

• Small-format video triptych

• NOTE: see the videos below for more on each individual component.

Let us imagine a straight line is inspired two French thinkers of the late 19th century: physiologist Etienne-Jules Marey and philosopher Henri Bergson. Marey conceived the apparatus for the modern scientific study of movement. He invented instruments to measure human and animal locomotion—a beating heart, a bird in flight—and developed technologies that eventually led to the modern cinema. Bergson responded to these advances with a philosophy that rethought the relation between space and time, matter and memory, physical and psychical movement. The counterpoint of Bergson’s thought and Marey’s vision suggests a drama about the power and limits of human perception. Let us imagine a straight line invites participants to experience the difference between their two ways of seeing.