CODE Live 2 – The Paradise Institute – Review

Over the Olympic break, an installation called The Paradise Institute was exhibited in the Emily Carr University Concourse Gallery. The piece was created by Janet Cardiff and Georges Bures Miller and organized by the National Gallery of Canada. The piece ran from February 8 to 21, 2010.

Upon entering the Concourse Gallery you will see the Paradise Institute as a large oddly shaped wooden structure or enclosure. You will notice that there are doors in the sides of this enclosure as well as stairs leading up to them, which will prompt you to enter. Upon entering this structure you recognize it as a movie theatre. However, it’s built in such a way that the perspective of the space makes it seem much larger, if not like a full size theatre. You sit in a movie theatre style chair of which there are two rows, and you look out at the screen. Below you are many tiny chairs and an illuminated screen. Before the piece begins you put on a pair of headphones, the room darkens and a movie begins to play.

This piece is very much an interactive one and very experiential. You must sit down inside the enclosure to experience it. The attendants close the doors and you must stay for the duration of the piece, which is about thirteen minutes. You must listen to the audio via headphones that are hooked to the bottom of your seat. There are about sixteen seats and you will most likely be watching the piece with other people.

I feel the piece is meant to explore the relationship between our senses of sight and sound and reality. The video playing on the movie theatre was about a man trapped inside a hospital just as you the viewer are trapped inside the structure. The audio sounds playing in your headphones come from the movie as well as the imaginary theatre around you. These sounds really play with your senses of what is real and what is not, based on audio and visual stimuli. I think this piece utilizes core notions of whether or not seeing is believing or more in this case, is hearing believing.

I think that this piece does a good job in creating a general sense of anxiety in the viewers. The inability to be positive of what’s real and what is not while being in a dark room with strangers is very effective. However, I feel some of the sounds were not as believable as others. If the goal is to blur the line of reality and illusion, than the audio sound effects such as cellular phones, jackets rustling, and people scuffling where very successful. It’s the people whispering and talking that I feel detracts from the piece as I can clearly distinguish their voices out to be fake, or illusory. I feel that if the whispers were more silent, or inaudible they may have been more helpful to the piece.

Overall, I feel this work was very well done. I definitely had some difficulty distinguishing what was real and what wasn’t and found myself looking over my shoulder for people getting up and moving around a few occasions.