Marnix de Nijs
Run Motherfucker Run is an interactive installation whereby anyone in good physical condition may try his or her luck in a city of empty streets, deserted intersections, ominous alleyways and unexpected obstacles. When you take position on the treadmill before an enormous 8 x 4 meter screen you are subjected to a mix of film and 3-D imagery. The distance you run on the conveyor belt is the same distance you will cover in the virtual city in front of you. By quickening your pace, the acceleration of the belt as well as the speed of the image increases and your running behavior and the directional choices you make determine the progress of the film. A film with an atmosphere somewhere between a thriller chase and urban horror. The interface is a manipulated industrial assembly line with electronically variable speed. With a range of 0 to 30 kilometers per hour, the treadmill measures 5 x 2 meters. Physically the interface will not allow the most natural course of navigation through the virtual environment. On the contrary, it is an individual element with a will of its own. The conveyor belt can only move straight ahead and you must move in order to see the image. Although you are free to determine the speed of the belt, only if you run fast will you get an optimum image at full brightness. As you slow down the image fades. So physically there is a mechanized pressure to keep up the pace and an urgency to hold onto the imagery of the world in front of you. This in combination with the tangible power of the machine creates a temperamental balance between control and non-control of the situation you voluntarily entered into when you first stepped on the treadmill.
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