Hybrid Spaces [1997]

Hybrid Spaces was an installation and performance inspired by an artist residency of Antonio Muntadas with students in the Electronic Arts and Architecture programs at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. It explored the odd hybridizations of architectural programs like spas at airports and universities in shopping malls that was the subject of Muntadas' residency.

The site-specific installation at an abandoned department store turned nightclub in Troy, NY, introduced viewers to the concept of hybrid architectural programs through immersive media projections and live-feed performances and by virtue of its own programmatic superimpositions within the department store site.

A single-person performance took place in the storefront window display area using found objects left in the department store. Live video of this performance was broadcast within the store itself, adjacent to an interactive media display of examples of hybrid architectural spaces. Visitors could interact with these projections to form their own kinds of hybrid environments.