M. Ordinaire and the Istanbul Diversion

An Experiment in Transmedia Storytelling

This interactive installation at the Spring 2024 Brewery Artwalk involved multiple analog and digital media and was built around the story behind the first single from the rock opera The Continual Return of Dr. Ordinaire.

The narrative as presented musically in Victorian Passage is somewhat abstract and ambiguous (though “Victorian” suggests a time period, and the lyrics refer explicitly to travel). In this multiple-media “remix” we explore the chapter in more detail, where the travel is from Paris to the east, by rail.

An Interactive Exploration

By moving the viewing device left and right an explorer can examine the physical artifacts and evidence more closely; at the same time the digital elements in the video projection change as well. Furthermore, with movement across the physical/temporal timeline, the music also changes and modulates accordingly — so the “remix” is created interactively.

The result can be considered a sort of game or puzzle: can you piece together the clues and determine what happened to Monsieur Ordinaire after he boarded a train leaving Paris in 1931?

This installation combines multiple media, and the work of multiple Brewery artists: The large “map” painting is by Theodore Svenningsen (who also collaborated on narrative elements of this “chapter”), photography of the various characters in the opera is by Vern Evans; digital/interactive and analog assemblage elements by Pete (Lightspace Modulator).