Pop-up Fleapit at Encounters 2013

The Pop-up Fleapit was an interactive installation that was commissioned as part of Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival 2013. Using the same mechanism as The Fleapit (the miniature cinema version), passersby were encouraged to scan a QR code to gain access to controlling the cinema where they could open and close the curtains and play at being projectionist, cueing up movies on the screen. Here’s a little video of the Pop-up Fleapit in action at the Parlour Showrooms on Park Street as part of the Encounters Film Festival fringe events:

Setting up at the Parlour Showrooms

Tarim and I were invited to install a giant version of The Fleapit in the Parlour Showrooms as part of Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival’s fringe events this year.  Here are some photos of us setting up with fringe events co-ordinator, Steve Presence and Bert and Joe from Know Alternative.

There’s something rather lovely about these curtains popping up in a shop window – gives a whole new meaning to window shopping.  Tarim suggested calling it Window Screen and we also had Window Jacker as a suggested title, but we decided to stick with Pop-up Fleapit as the film programme and interaction is essentially the same as the tiny version.

Up-scaling the installation to this size has been a huge learning curve, particularly in terms of the physics of back-projection, issues around scanning the QR codes in daylight and the fact that Know Alternative were tasked with setting up Encounters’ Swiss Chalet behind the screen which meant we didn’t have as long a run as we’d like.  But it’s whetted my appetite for further pop-up cinema events in shop windows so watch this space, or get in touch if you have any ideas.

I’m editing a short video documentation of the interactive curtains in action, which I’ll post here soon.

Ladies bloomers cinema curtains

Whilst making the “ladies bloomers” style cinema curtains I strung them across my mum’s kitchen. As you may already know, I’m addicted to cinema curtains.  I don’t know what the attraction is and have ruminated on it a bit here, but I just might have to find space for them at home…

Fleapit at Encounters

We’re very excited that the Digital Fleapit has been invited to exhibit at Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival in September alongside other pervasive media screen-based projects – including another project I’m involved in with Tim Kindberg and Hazel Grian, the Nth Screen. The miniature cinema will be programmed with suitably tiny movies – a range of the best 90-second DepicT! entries over the last few years, together with 3-minute films from this year’s 0117 Film Challenge.