Picnic
© 2003-2004, Michael O'Rourke

Interactive multimedia mural installation: printed tiles, real-time video, pre-recorded video, pre-recorded sound. 7' x 45.5' (2.1m x 13.8m)

Picnic is a 7'x45.5' multimedia mural. Radiating outwards from the center, image of us, at play, and at work. The mural examines our efforts to understand our place in the world, whether through our private thoughts or our religious practices. The recurring rectangles of imagery echo the rectangular windows of our current visual culture - video screens, film screens, the floating windows of our computer screens.

Embedded within the mural are several video screens. One, a pair of screens arranged as a video diptych, displays real-time footage of the us, the viewers, as we look at and move in front of the the mural. Another screen shows a repeating video loop of two people searching a beach for objects.

Along the length of the mural, emanating through the mural wall from the two ends and from the middle, we hear faint sounds. This audio plays at a low volume, such that the sounds of children playing, of urban street sounds, and of sounds of nature blend together faintly depending on where you are standing. Click to hear a simulated blending of this audio.

Click to see an installation view and a diagram of the multimedia components.

The mural can be displayed in its full multimedia version, or as a mural consisting only of static imagery without any video or audio. It also can be exhibited as a smaller scale (22" x 105") tiled print on paper.

This composition is also produced as a large-scale print. Additionally, four variations on this mural were developed as smaller prints on paper.

Click a section of the mural to see a detail, see video, or hear audio.