The Virtual Palladium

The New York City Palladium was a concert hall and later in 1985 it was converted into a nightclub.  The building was located on the south side of East 14th Street, between Irving Place and 3rd Avenue. After the conversion from a venue to a club, the main dance floor of the Palladium was a huge space, which used to hold the theater and seating.  One innovation at the time of opening the club was the large banks of TV monitors in grid formations, use to play music videos. Each could operate separately, or one large picture could be shown across the grid. The Palladium closed in 1998 and was demolished. New York University purchased the land and built a 12-story residence hall keeping the name Palladium. It houses 975 undergraduate and 170 MBA students.

My Virtual Palladium pays homage to the innovative dance club.  In 1995 several artists were invited to temporarily take over a section of the Detroit Institute of Arts for an exhibition titled Interventions.  I decided to take over the visitor’s information room.  The original use of this room was a theater for viewing video introducing the museum and its collections. My work The Virtual Palladium is an interactive computer, music, and video installation activated by the presence of visitors and change according to their movements via video camera and Max software. Rather than being passive viewers everyone becomes an active participant, creating and controlling visual and auditory elements.  Whereas the DIA theater video informs visitors about the museum, my work suggests being an informed museum visitor requires a willing interaction with art.