From a glowing, mysterious pavilion we festoon the Medtroinic Gallery at the Walker Art Center with images of two cities by digital artist Joellyn Rock, music and film by multimedia composer Kathy McTavish and live-Tweeted text written by participants curated by netprov (networked improv narrative) artist Rob Wittig. Improvising on audience suggestions, our team of netprov writers weaves stories of the half-cities. Visitors can lounge and view projected Sophronia streams and contribute on Twitter at #sophroniatwo. The production is live-mixed by McTavish using her Graffiti Angel software. We play until dawn with the energy of the night and the strange couplings and uncouplings of the institutional and the ephemeral. Follow #sophroniatwo
“The city of Sophronia is made up of two half-cities,” writes Italo Calvino inInvisible Cities, inspiring our networked, participatory tent of marvels. “In one there is a great roller coaster with its steep humps, the carousel … the Ferris wheel … the death-ride with crouching motorcyclists, the big top. The other half-city is of stone … with the bank, the factories, the palaces, the slaughterhouse, the school, and all the rest. One of the half-cities is permanent, the other is temporary …”