Adriene Jenik calls this CD-ROM a translation. She is referring to the fact that for this production she not only adapted the novel 'Le Désert Mauve' by the Canadian writer, Nicole Brossard, in three versions (French, English and Spanish), she also adapted it for multimedia. She sees multimedia as a language that can be learnt and one governed by its own rules and idiosyncrasies. It cost her five years and thirty gigabytes of video material to make this production. You are taken along to help create the wild and erotic story of the protagonist, the 15-year-old Melanie. She is driving through the desert to the north of Los Angeles in her mother's Mercury and stays, among other places, at the Red Arrow Motel for a time, where her love and desire for an older woman, Kathy, flourishes. Riding in the car has its own interface and appears to be a metaphor for reading. By using the rear-view mirror the user can take part in the recent memories, erotic desires and monologues. Sitting in the back seat, the user/voyeur looks over Melanie's shoulder at the surrealistic landscape of the barren desert lying like a layer over the original text of the novel. Subtle navigation through the text can be made by using the glove compartment and the objects in it, such as a Marker Map (a map that admits the user to a section dedicated to the making of the CD-ROM itself), a pistol (a clue for the story's dénouement and the way back to the motel) and a notebook with catchwords, drawings and poems. The interface is not only a handy way to exit this section for another, it also offers the chance to creep into Melanie's experiences. You can, however, choose to follow the flow of the story without losing your freedom to make choices. This is an experimental form of fiction which allows you to change the 'translation' at any moment. The CD-ROM is not only an exemplary homage to Brossard's novel, it is also a rare example of how interactive fiction can be just as enthralling as the paper novel.
– Willem van Weelden
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Camera: Andrea Slane, Eleanor Goldsmith, Adriene Jenik, Mary Feaster, Lesley Wahl
Light: Roberto Bocci, Sound: Adriene Jenik, Kevin McCoy, Charline Boudreau, Fred Drake, Music: Helen Hall, Mary Feaster, Rancho de la Luna Ranch Hands, Christina of the Desert, Lisa Brenneis & John Robie, Jammie Muhoberac e.v.a., Sound mixing: Adriene Jenik, Eero Aro, With: Lora Moran, Nathalie Derome, Elia Arce, Denise Moran, Mihelle Cox, Alyssa Tullin, Nathalie Lewis, Bill Duer, Nicole Brossard, Adriene Jenik
Adriene Jenik ° 1964, East Orange (USA)
Lives and works in San Diego (USA)
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