Run Motherfucker Run
"Run Motherfucker Run" (2001/2004) by Marnix de Nijs is an interactive chase-movie. The visitor finds himself on a treadmill being threatened. In front of him the picture to which he is running is projected and behind him the picture of the attacker. Depending on his running behavior and the choices he will make, the visitor determines the progress of the film in which he, by stepping on the treadmill, has become a participant.
installation still [photo: Jan Sprij, 2004]
Run Motherfucker Run is a trip through nocturnal Rotterdam in installation form. The visitor's running rhythm determines the speed of the treadmill, and this drives up the speed of the pictures. After every film fragment, one can choose between two more short films by turning left or right. In Run Motherfucker Run one is seized by an oppressive feeling. Running through the deserted nocturnal panoramas, one has the feeling one is being chased. While one thinks one has a certain control over one's running speed and the selection of the images, one ultimately realizes that one is being controlled by the machine.
Through an opening in the projection screen, a laser scanner determines the runner's position relative to the screen. When the runner changes position, the speed of the treadmill and the pictures is adapted. For example, if one runs faster, one moves further forward, and this is immediately registered by the computer. A signal is then sent to the treadmill to go faster, and to the pictures to move in faster succession. The sensor can also distinguish whether someone is walking to the left or right within the field of the treadmill. There are two beamers that project a life-sized picture in which the user is incorporated into the stream of images of streets, metro stations, roadways and railway tracks.
Marnix de Nijs demands the audience get involved in his art. Passively standing to the side is not an option in his interactive installations. In particular, he seeks to examine the power relations between humans and machines. De Nijs says, I'm only offering the steering and the control to the audience to make them more involved, to let them ultimately find out that there is nothing else possible except what the machine dictates, thus actually what I want. The loss of control is something which is experienced as threatening. A feeling of fear is involved in many of De Nijs's installations, increasing the feeling in viewers that they have lost control of the situation.
http://www.marnixdenijs.nl/rmr.htm
Credits:
In collaboration with Reinier van Brummelen, Noud Heerkens and Boris Debackere
Co-production: Productiehuis Rotterdam/Rotterdamse Schouwburg, V2_Lab, ZKM
