Dhaka: ‘Ether’, an interactive public arts project created by Kaaktalio and Glyph began at the auditorium of Goethe-Institut Bangladesh on Sunday afternoon.

Soon after the curtain raising, attending visitors standing on queue were allowed to walk into the story, set within a labyrinth and follow the story as s/he keeps tracing the paintings, projections and words on its walls. The entire set, 16ft large in width and length and 7ft tall in height, is custom designed to be minimally lit and create the ambience of space.

Ether is an attempt at merging architecture, motion capture technology, music, street art and poetry to create a physical story exclusively designed as an individual experience for each member of the audience.

Goethe-Institut Bangladesh extends its support for Ether as a host and patron, as parts of their efforts to bridge electronic music and music technology scenes between South Asia and Germany via Border Movement.

The technology behind Ether has been developed by the artists and technologists of Kaaktalio, an independent production studio that works in motion picture, animation, live visual, music and art technology. Their technology translates the audience’s motion into custom visuals and music, making the experience unique for each person as s/he interacts with the technology.

The interactive music and visual creation is being generated by using a Kinect which captures the motion of each participant. Kaaktalio’s expertise on lights and projection mapping also adds a whole new dimension to the experience.

The creative conceptualisation and story has been created by the writers and artists of Glyph, a creative storytelling agency that is passionate about experimenting with the art of storytelling.

The set is designed to be collapsible and shuffled whenever needed so that variations can be made in the structure and turns of the pathway, making it adaptable to diverse venues and locations. It can be assembled in any order on any level ground, indoors and outdoors, making room for greater interaction with the audience across different locations.

The script, artwork and words were created in many levels, conceptualised in digital format and then replicated using painting techniques loosely inspired by street-art techniques.

Together, Kaaktalio and Glyph have built a working partnership where technology has merged with creative arts, reflecting on infinite possibilities for a new generation of creative technologists and artists. Ether acts as a bridge between traditional and experimental art, between arts and technology and between various art forms.

The art show will remain open for all until 11 June 2015, every day from 3:00pm to 7:00pm at Goethe-Institut Bangladesh(House 10, Road 9, Dhanmondi).