Murphy's Well-Being

An EmerAgency "konsult" in the form of a dual-channel video installation driven by a custom multi-touch table. Performing as a quasi-corporate consultancy, the Florida Research Ensemble (FRE) looked at the Cabot-Koppers EPA Superfund site and made public-policy recommendations alternative to the scientific, governmental or corporate positions to which we are accustomed. The work proposed that a cultural emphasis on "well-being" might mitigate disaster, and that attention to the mechanism of desire might alter our current environmental trajectory. The FRE team created a "kiosk" one might expect to find in a corporate lobby that drives a database of animations, video interviews and documentary footage. Meaning effects are created through juxtapositions of video imagery that implement Ulmer's theorization of the "Popcycle." Interaction with the table allowed the viewer to navigate the "chora" and get a sense of the issues, driving dual video projections on the wall beyond. A complete description of the conceptual underpinnings and structure of the work can be found on the Murphy's Well-Being website.