Allen Hahn (IDAH Incubator Awardee and Faculty Fellow, 2018-2019) began developing techniques for mediated, place-based narrative work a decade ago. His newest project Palimpsest developed through the IDAH Faculty Fellowship is an ambitious mixed-reality experience that aims to immerse the IU community in the past, while simultaneously giving them a new perspective on their own role in the University’s future. “The project will make it clear that even those of us not destined to have our names adorn buildings one day have an important role to play in assuring that the University’s foundation remains strong,” says Hahn. “The promise of Indiana University’s motto, Lux et Veritas, resides in the everyday acts of heroism of members of its community.” Hahn and his partners at IU, and from several cities in the US and Canada, will combine narratives, performances, demonstrations, events, audiovisuals, and mined archival material to make the Palimpsest project a reality over coming months.
Allen's complete #WHYDAH interview covers the future of Palimpsest, community engagement, virtual reality, and the realities of the research process. Read on at the link below.
READ ALLEN'S FULL #WHYDAH INTERVIEW
ABOUT THE VIDEO CLIP:
"I shot video of a friend in vaguely mid-century period attire walking through the Arts Plaza which was built in this period. The found audio that accompanies the video is from something publicly available through the IU Moving Image Archive. The film from which it is excerpted from was about a museum exhibit of Buddhist statuary here at IU Bloomington also from that same period on time. With the initial impulse only to meld things of the same period together, what I find interesting is the way the mind works to synthesize image, audio, and happy accidental lighting conditions into some coherent experience and distill meaning from it, though there is no literal connection between any of these elements."
--Allen Hahn, project creator
