Ghosts in the Machine is a 3D film installation by Billy Cowie
commissioned by Lighthouse, Brighton.
Jennifer Potter, Rachel Blackman and Victoria Melody dance, sing and
joke their way through the twenty-five minute piece. Their topics of
discussion range from existentialism to ballpark sex to media studies
(though none of them is quite sure which cowboy film Marshall McLuhan
was actually in). Hanging over them is the dread knowledge that at the
end of the performance they have to do ‘the whole friggin thing
all over again’ but somehow it turns out to be more fun than they
thought.The music is three songs from the Eatingest CD by Billy Cowie
and Jennifer Potter `(Love is Like a Car, Ariel and Caliban, Swing Low
Sweet Cheerioh) and Schubert's Litanei sung by Lucie and Cathryn Robson.
REVIEWS
GHOSTS IN THE MACHINE
TRAVERSE, EDINBURGH
MARY BRENNAN
They look so real these three young women and they are real, or were
when Billy Cowie asked them to be his Ghosts in the Machine. Cowie has
yet again conjured up a 3D illusion that sends commonsense perceptions
into a tailspin as soon as the red/blue spectacles are put on.
It’s afterwards the mind begins to turn somersaults, looping
notions of reality and virtual existence between thoughts about the
nature of voyeurism, cinema and the life ongoing that is encapsulated
in Cowie’s cunningly contrived footage.
Previous pieces, like In the Flesh, have been tinged with erotic
mysticism but here it’s the down-to-earth quality of what these
women (Jennifer Potter, Rachel Blackman and Victoria Melody) say and do
that is so persuasive and so enticingly naughty.
Cowie deploys the 3D trickery with consummate skill, but what amazes
most is the lingering sense of him having played tricks on time and
space, with us peeping at a past that is thrusting itself into our
present.
Glasgow Herald 26 Nov 2009
GHOSTS IN THE MACHINE
TRAVERSE, EDINBURGH
JOYCE McMILLAN
Billy Cowie's witty 25-minute 3-D film-installation Ghosts in the
Machine is a short but cheeky exploration of the border country between
live theatre and film. On a small set featuring three doors with white
bead curtains, the separately filmed images of three actresses appear,
one in each doorway. To the audience, wearing 3D specs, they look
astonishingly like live actors, moving towards us, talking,
interacting, reaching out with preternaturally long arms. The look of
the show is immensely stylish, all effortless neo-Sixties chic, and the
ease with which it mimics live performance is usefully disturbing, to
anyone who cares about the future of theatre.
The Scotsman 26 Nov 2009
Technical set up
The piece can be presented either A in an installation/gallery type
context with the piece running on a continuous loop and the audience
entering and leaving as they wish or B in a theatrical context with a
seated audience who view a single 25 minute screening of the work. In
both cases the audience wears blue/red glasses which we bring.
Installation version requires;
HD Media Player (which we provide) with HDMI output and stereo
rca phono jack sound output
Video projector (high definition 1920x1080 native) venue provides HDMI input.
Stereo sound system venue provides
A room with smooth white wall (4.5 metres by 2.5 metres for life size
– can be smaller) or white screen with no light coming in.
Theatrical Version requires
HD Media Player (which we provide) with HDMI output and stereo
rca phono jack sound output
Video projector (high definition 1920x1080 native) venue provides with
DVI or VGA input.
Stereo sound system venue provides
A theatre with smooth white projection screen (4.5 metres by 2.5 metres
for life size – can be smaller)