This work was first exhibited at the Peripheries: Electronic Literature and New Media art exhibtion at the Glucksman, 11-17 July, 2019, as part of the Electronic Literature Organisation conference in Cork. It is not yet accessible online, so our description of it here is based on two viewings at the exhibition.Â
Exhibition catalogue text: "You•Who? is a ten minute fiction film installation for one participant at a time in which the participant features significantly in the film narrative, resulting both in humour and a certain sense of unease. The film deals with issues of identity theft: the protagonist, returning from a conference, is gradually ‘possessed’ by another conference attendee—portrayed by the data from each participant. Metamorphosis occurs in a variety of creative ways, the protagonist eventually fleeing metaphorically over a snowy wilderness before being taken over completely by the participant in a final face-morphing sequence.
Unlike ‘classic’ interactivity, in You•Who? the interaction occurs through data gathered from the viewer. A ‘branch-point’ in the film occurs through emotion detection of the participant’s face, and a great many scenes have the user’s face, video, voice and other data rendered into them to give variance at every single viewing. Hence the term ‘customised cinema’. All data is deleted after each viewing."