Unreliable Narrator is an interactive installation which keeps you in the dark, quite literally and then shows you a wonderful surprise when you turn on the light. This project was inspired by the fact that our lives is a story and we are the unreliable narrators of our lives. . We all have a definitive beginning and a definitive end but the path we choose to get there can be multiple. It can also be compared to a maze for which there is start and an end and various ways to through the maze. Each of us have a different way through life and it all depends on the decisions we take at every point in our lives.
This monologue was delivered by the protagonist of the movie ‘Life Itself’ about the life of a New York couple as they go from college romance to marriage and the birth of their first child. The unexpected twists of their journey creates ripples of consequences that echo over continents and through lifetimes. This movie demonstrates by itself the concept of the literary device unreliable narrator. In literature, an unreliable narrator is a character who tells a story with a lack of credibility. This story also demonstrates how everything in the world is connected together through the concept of the Butterfly Effect.
The installation comprises of a map which is hidden. A pressure sensor which is mounted under a mat which when stepped lights up the map for a quick second, enough to memorize your path, an invisible ink pen with which you can trace your path and a black light which finally shows the entire path at the end of the experience.
The entire experience has been compared to life metaphorcally –
The project took 4 weeks right from conceptualization to production and then the final show!