Press Release The Andy Warhol Museum Announces New Screen Test Interactive Project on 6th Floor

The Andy Warhol Museum announces a new interactive experience that allows visitors to participate in a recreation of Andy Warhol’s process of filming a Screen Test. This interactive experience is prominently located within the museum’s film and video galleries on the 6th floor, where Warhol’s Screen Tests are on permanent display.

Between 1964 and 1966, Warhol created almost five hundred of these film portraits of famous and anonymous visitors to his studio, including Salvador Dalí, Dennis Hopper and Edie Sedgwick. Warhol filmed his subjects using a stationary, Bolex camera loaded with 100-foot rolls of black and white 16mm film. Sitters were instructed to sit still for about three minutes, the length of time it took for the roll of film to run through the camera. He later projected the silent Screen Tests in slow motion, thereby extending their duration to four minutes and imbuing them with a dreamlike stillness. During the 1960s, these films were rarely shown in public, but were often shown at The Factory.

In a gallery reminiscent of Warhol’s Silver Factory studio, museum visitors are invited to create their own screen test utilizing a computer touch screen, a moveable backdrop, a specially modified vintage camera, and twin studio lights. Upon completion, the visitor’s screen test is transformed digitally from real time to slow motion and pushed to the Internet, where their work of art will be available on a custom webpage. The screen test can then be shared on various social media channels.

“With media so transformed in contemporary life, it is often difficult for visitors to imagine how things were done almost 50 years ago. This interactive experience offers the opportunity to gain insight into how Warhol created one of his most significant bodies of work by demonstrating the process by which he made these films. The visitors’ finished screen tests will reveal the subtle nuances that made Warhol’s films transcend their medium to become visual masterpieces,” stated Geralyn Huxley, curator of film & video.

“In a most Warholian gesture, we are riding the wave of innovation and new technologies in launching this fun and exciting interactive feature that will allow our guests to achieve their own 15 minutes of fame here at The Andy Warhol Museum. We are always striving to improve our visitor’s experiences at the museum, and this Screen Test Interactive project allows everyone to learn about Warhol’s process while making their own work of art that they can then share on various social media platforms with friends and Warhol fans around the world. It is our core mission to promote and share the work of Andy Warhol with our global audience, and I am thrilled to see what conversations emerge thanks to this cool new project,” stated Eric Shiner, director of The Warhol.

The Screen Test Interactive project was created by The Warhol team with help from Pittsburgh-based technology startup Interbots, and designer Michael Johnson and developer Evan Tahler.

The Screen Test Interactive project opens to visitors on August 6 in honor of Warhol’s birthday. The project will be open during regular museum business hours.