Brother Islands

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Brother Islands: Video Still
Brother Islands is a live multimedia performance about involuntary isolation and its machinery, as seen through the sights and sounds of two East River islands. Brother Islands premiered in 2007 at Eyebeam Art & Technology Center in New York City in a sold out performance to launch the "MIXER" series.

Half a century since its abandonment, North Brother Island fades from New York City's map as nature swallows this one block square quarantine city. Just down the East River, Ward's Island warehouses New York's homeless and mentally ill in a dozen immense buildings clustered under the Triborough Bridge.
Brother Islands combines physical theater, audio, video and stereoscopic photography to paint a haunting picture of these ill-fated places. The performers explore location in relationship to history, memory, and representation within a format that could be described as "expanded documentary". Audio and video field recordings become raw materials for live digital manipulation; by presenting these sights and sounds around the centralized audience, a documentary movie becomes a performance of a place.

Brother Islands collaborators:

Music Composer: Ross Goldstein

Co-director/Designer: Minou Maguna

3D Photographer: Matthew Schlanger's

Performer ("Poltergeists"): Ryder Cooley

Performer ("Poltergeists"): Dan Winckler

Ghost FX/Performer ("Tex"): Bill Etra

Ghost Video FX: vade (Anton Marini)

Sonic Spatialization: Jesse Stiles

Editor/Live Camera: Eric Drasin

http://benton-c.com/broisl.htm

Project Created: 
11/2007
 
People: Benton-C Bainbridge, Minou Maguna
Research: Urban Research
Project Type: Digital Cinema, Installation, Performance Art, Video
Tags: Brother Islands, mixer