Mutable Cinema is a new digital form of entertainment that allows people to explore cinematic content within the framework of an interactive movie.
Players can edit movie clips in real time, and as they go along, generate new narrative arcs from the database of pre-formatted content. The combinatorial possibilities are huge and each performance has a unique personal interpretation.
Currently, the Mutable Cinema project is a New Media Installation Art piece. It can be set up at a gallery or movie theatre. The dynamic between the player and viewing audience is highly interactive -- the audience watches as the player engages the challenges of deciding what to play on the big screen, when to play it, and how to structure their message while avoiding contradictory content. And this action takes place with the added pressure of the movie unfolding simultaneously in real-time.
A player interacts with the Mutable Cinema Interface to create a real-time audience movie by choosing clips from multiple parallel storylines, recombining them, and selecting different camera angles and points of view. As the player assembles their piece, a linear montage of their choices forms the story and is projected for the audience to observe. Sometimes the player can be several clips ahead of the game, and othertimes, scrambling in real time to assemble a meaningful story.
The Mutable Cinema project strives to provide an enjoyable and compelling multimedia experience. Our goal is to manifest three benefits from this project: To enhance social role playing using the symbolic power of cinima; to broaden people's experience of communication and personal expression through performance art; and, to facilitate new interactive modes of participatory learning through technology.
Development of the Mutable Cinema Project made possible in part through the cooperative efforts of the Banff New Media Institute, Kinzuki Productions, and Méxican - Canadian cultural exchange.
