Electro Bacchanalia

The new museum installation Electro Bacchanalia was produced at Swedish Forum for Cultural Heritage in collaboration with Performing Pictures at the Interactive Institute. It aims to stimulate young visitors’ interest in the motif of an Old Master’s painting and make a flirtatious reference to contemporary lifestyle.

Electro Bacchanalia is a modern interpretation of a peep show, set in a traditional 17th century style wooden box. One side of the box displays a replica of a painting made circa 1640 by a French painter who belonged to Nicolas Chaperon’s circle. The motif of this painting is Bacchanalia, a feast in ancient Rome in honour of Bacchus. The feasts led to such wild debauchery and excess that the authorities tried to undermine them. When peering into the box through a small hole, a stage-like setup of the painting is revealed. As music flows from the box, two of the characters from the painting are brought to life. While it uses the aesthetics of the traditional peep show, Electro Bacchanalia is realised using modern technology and is based on video composites rather than the still images and objects used in historical peep boxes. The entire installation runs from a single computer with a TFT screen, and user interaction is controlled via a sensor and a micro-controller.

Watch film about Electro Bacchanalia, HERE