Sally or The Bubble Burst

Interactive DVD-ROM by Toni Dove

Sally or The Bubble Burst uses speech recognition and synthesis to allow viewers to enter the world of Sally, an inhabitable responsive narrative character based on the 1930's fan and bubbledancer Sally Rand.

In three interactive "zones," viewers can:

manipulate a hypnotic performance of Sally's notorious bubble dance (recreated from research, photos and newsreels of the original Sally Rand)
hear observations about the Great Depression and the unconscious of consumerism from a chorus of objects (including two bubbles, a chair, a shawl and a radio) voiced by well-known downtown New York City performers Eric Mingus, Shelley Hirsch, Judy Nylon, Gregory Whitehead and Lisa Karrer
speak directly to Sally in an interactive conversation using a microphone

A viewer can also use the keyboard to make Sally speak any text or change her attitude and expressions.

Sally is played by Helen Pickett, of the Forsythe Ballet and the Wooster Group, who choreographed the bubble dance based on the 1930's original. Music and sound design by Peter Scherer using MAX/MSP software with the newly introduced Jitter video software by Cycling '74. Software design by R. Luke DuBois of the Jitter team.

Sally creates a unique, intimate kind of interactivity as viewers speak and sing, and use mouse and keyboard to inhabit and converse with the unpredictable Sally as she casts an uncanny shadow into the present.

Detailed Information

The printed manual accompanying the package explains in detail how to set up and use the Sally DVD-ROM. Click here to view the manual in PDF format.

System Requirements

PowerPC G3 or G4 computer with 256 megabytes of RAM and a DVD-ROM drive. Mac OS 9.1-9.2.2 or OS X 10.2 or later is required. A microphone is required to use the speech recognition capabilities of Sally. 590 megabytes of disk space required for installation.