Spooky Warms the Heart (2010) is an interactive film set/installation built for the pilot episode of an absurdist time travel soap opera.
The installation is comprised of a two-room film set featuring hand-printed fractal wallpaper, a working fountain chair, coke-can surveillance camera and live feed, painted nautilus rug, grocery store items and coupons from the future, Mercedes Benz hood ornament glasses, and a time machine secret passageway.
The Spooky Warms the Heart set was part of Flux Factory’s exhibition Housebroken, and built so that the secret passage was hidden from visitors. Once participants found their way inside, I invited them to make themselves at home; to sit in the fountain chair, clip coupons, and socialize. At the beginning of each visit to the set, I told participants that a secret passageway existed in the space, but they would have to discover it on their own.