David Pledger: On Eavesdrop and New Media: Interview

Interview

Rosemary Klich spoke to David Pledger about his work on Thursday 20 January 2005 at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney.

David Pledger is founding artistic director and producer of the Melbourne based, multifaceted company, Not Yet It’s Difficult (NYID). On his recent project, Eavesdrop, presented at the 2004 Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney Festivals, he collaborated with Executive Director of the i-Cinema Centre for Interactive Cinema Research, Jeffrey Shaw, to produce a 360-degree cinematic landscape that invites the user to explore the scene before them from a podium-like user console.

In a kind of purgatorial club, the characters share intimate conversations that explore certain moral, spiritual and psychological conditions, while the user/audience assumes a role that is both detective and director as s/he ‘eavesdrops’ on these interwoven stories. Described as ‘part game, part real-time filmmaking, part spectator sport, part magical realism’ (NYID), Eavesdrop expands the borders of the cinema screen and allows users to navigate their own path through the multi-narrative, multi-layered, theatrical terrain.