Martin Rieser

The Poetics of Interactivity: The Uncertainty Principle

Dreamhouses:Labyrinth

In the Dreamhouse project, Ship of Fools was seeking to bring a primitive holistic
experience up to date, combining spatial, ritualistic, and dreamlike elements. As in
many other ‘games’ the user finds themselves in a house. A walk through the
Dreamhouse offered access to a number of rooms or experiences; each designed by an
artist, reworking traditional storytelling structures. Various rooms were appropriately
matched to the different psyches of those involved in authoring the piece. So the
house became an interactive theatre, where different tales are triggered by audience
exploration. The bland domestic environment of a real suburban house became the
main interface.

In my own contribution, Labyrinth, various devices-doors, windows, mirrors and other

objects, opened gateways into the mythological world. The themes of intimacy and
alienation were explored through such devices as multiple talking heads, each with
their particular poetic fragments, or through a hall of sleepers who could be
individually awakened. I sought to employ the resonance of poetic verse drama to
unpack a number of thematics around fatherhood, overwhelming passion and
‘RealPolitik’ suggested by the original Theseus and Daedalus legends.