Starwatching aside, autocentric Los Angelinos have another reason to cruise Sunset Boulevard in August. An installation by a team of Xerox PARC artists-in-residence and researchers will feature a larger-than-life soap opera on two 9-by-12-foot Sony Jumbotrons. And drivers can direct the action using garage door openers and car alarm key fobs.
Sunset: 200 MHz in a 35 MPH Zone will unfold above Billboard Live, at Sunset and Doheny, where motorists can tune to a low-wattage FM station for instructions and the soap's soundtrack. Scenes shot with a 14-character cast will dissolve and blend in response to electronic input. At nearby Siggraph 97, conventioneers will be able to zap commands from the junket's show þoor.
"We're capitalizing on ubiquitous technology that people carry with them," explains cocreator Scott Minneman. A 65,000-auto-a-day boulevard is the perfect setting for a public art piece about ephemeral emotion and car culture, he says. Adds collaborator Jon Winet: "We want to develop new notions of public interaction." Beats rubbernecking at Demi and Bruce.
This article originally appeared in the August issue of Wired magazine.
