The Climb II
The Climb II borrows both ’80s video game aesthetics such as Super Mario Bros, and silent film-esqe physical movement in negotiation with the built environment with a nod to Buster Keaton. In both The Climb II and its predecessor The Climb a figure negotiates surface and gravity as she moves along the side of a building. In these works I work toward illusion and play to create a sense of tension and surprise for the viewer. Contemporary audiences who are tech savvy have nonetheless been willing to enter the fiction of the video projection as if it were real, responding to the moves and falters of the person “climbing” the wall, activating spectator impulses. I created these works with built sets and green screen, without digital effects, at the University of Michigan (US) Duderstadt Media Center. I reference the architectural variations of a site when choreographing the movement for the video, giving the building a role in the piece beyond simply that of screen surface. The viewer sees it as an integrated work, in which the figure is engaged with the structure as if in real time.
Melanie Manos is based in Detroit, Michigan, USA.
Utilizing her body in absurd and precarious actions, Melanie Manos walks a tightrope between humor and solemnity to convey the inequities and insecurities of daily life and the systems that perpetuate them. A recipient of the Kresge Arts Award for Live Art, Manos works in live and mediated performance, video, photography, multi-media installation and digital collage. A new project HerView: Visualizing Women’s Work uses augmented reality to convey the historical erasure of women and women’s labor. Manos has performed and exhibited internationally both solo and in collaboration with Sarah Buckius as The ManosBuckius Cooperative focusing on labor and the human/technology interface; “MBC” videos have played in video/electronic festivals in over 22 countries.