Ho Tzu Nyen’s The Cloud of Unknowing begins as moving image but refuses to remain simply a film on a wall. Created for the Singapore Pavilion at the 2011 Venice Biennale, it was filmed inside a public housing block shortly before demolition. Eight characters encounter different manifestations of a mysterious cloud, with references ranging across Eastern and Western art history.
But the installation extends beyond the image.
Multiple screens, multichannel audio, theatrical lighting and smoke transform the viewing space itself. The cloud can effectively leave the projected world and appear to enter the room occupied by the audience.
That interests me from a VJ and expanded-cinema perspective.
Projection normally creates a clear border: reality here, image there.
Smoke destroys that certainty because projected light suddenly has volume. A beam that was invisible in the air becomes a physical-looking object.
The simplest atmospheric effect can therefore change the grammar of cinema.
The image stops being something we look at.
For a moment, we are standing inside it.
https://www.chanel.com/us/chanel-next-prize/ho-tzu-nyen/
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