GOOD OLD DAYS:

Imagine what it would be like to imagine the future.

Such is the case for one young woman and her four suitors in the new interactive exhibit, “The Imaginary 20th Century,” presented in the Orange Lounge at South Coast Plaza by the Orange County Museum of Art.

Combining more than 2,000 archival photos, illustrations and film from America and Europe between 1893 and 1926, author Norman Klein, media artist Andreas Kratky and curator Margo Bistis take audiences on a journey through the pages of time.

The historical science fiction novel, narrated by Klein, opens in 1901 and is divided into four chapters.

The story centers on Carrie, a young woman with visions of the coming century based on her childhood. She encounters four suitors on her life journey, each with his own futuristic perceptions. Carrie’s adventures take her across the world.

History, imagination and fantasy merge as viewers navigate their way through the narrative that is her life.

The exhibit offers different audio and visual means by which to experience the novel.

Users can view and listen to all four chapters in the lounge’s back room, as photographs and illustrations are projected on a large screen. The audio can be turned off if the pictures are more appealing than the story.

The visual images never absolutely match the narrative of the story, and that is intentional, the author said.

“It’s not supposed to correspond like a documentary,” Klein said, but rather give a sense of the specific time period, and leave room for individual interpretation of the story itself.

While the photographs are historical, they are used, along with the illustrations, to add imagery, Bistis said.

She and Klein combed through almost 80,000 images in multiple disciplines looking for ones that reflected what someone of Carrie’s background would have been exposed to.

“We used magazines and journals that would have been a source of information for her,” Klein said.

In the front room of the Lounge, only Chapter 1 is narrated, accompanied by a 3-D display of photographs assembled by artist Perry Hoberman.

“The three-dimensional interface is a much tighter approach, with people journeying through a space while listening. It holds you much closer to the narrative,” Bistis said. Because the exhibit is constantly evolving, more chapters may be added at a later date.

Bistis and Klein stressed that the exhibit has been a huge, collaborative effort between author, curator, artists, composers and illustrators.

Visual images came from collections at the Getty Museum, UCLA and the Library of Congress, and having music reproduced that sounded like music from the late 1800s was a tremendous challenge, Klein said.

“It took seven months to put the music together, and it’s very intriguing the way the sound plays off the images.”

This exhibit is definitely not a “books on tape” experience.

Everyone who interacts with the novel will have a unique interpretation, possibly based on the way they choose to experience it, Klein said.

People go through it different ways, Klein said, but whether they turn the audio off, visually experience it, or listen and watch at the same time, viewers will have enough of a sense of why the photographs are assembled that way, and he hopes they’ll enjoy Carrie’s journey.

“The story is fun. She’s a great character, and the men are interesting,” Klein said.

SUE THOENSEN may be reached at (714) 966-4627 or at sue.thoensen@latimes.com.