by Andy Polaine on October 8, 2008
in General
Audience is a new installation from rAndom International, with software by Chris O’Shea, for the Deloitte Ignite Festival at the Royal Opera House. 64 mirrors are places in a ‘crowd’ and programmed to behave with different ‘human’ characteristics.
It’s a witty reversal of the normal roles of art and audience although obviously still in the vein of camera-based interactives (and following on from interactive mirror works by people like Danny Rozin. But for me the two most interesting things are how simple movements can make the mirrors seem quite alive and sentient as well as how people try to “work out” or “trick” the system.
Check out the guy in the pink t-shirt who ends up performing for the other onlookers in the video above. It’s always fascinating to see how physical interactives can make people do all sorts of things they would otherwise not consider doing in a public space.
Tagged as:
Art,
chris-oshea,
installation,
Interactive,
mirrors,
oepnframeworks,
OpenCV,
pixelsumo,
randominternational
by Andy Polaine on June 16, 2008
in General
A quick reblog of Pixelsumo’s post about Bruno Taylor’s work hijacking public places to make playful spaces, which explores the notion that play is being designed out of the public realm.
“71% of adults used to play on the streets when they were young. 21% of children do so now,” says Taylor.
The above video is a nice guerilla take-over of a bus stop to turn it into a swing. I’m amazed, and pleased, that nobody stopped them. This is London right? You can hardly take a photo without the police stopping and searching you. But I often feel these kind of childhood playthings have a way of connecting to some deep feelings of dissatisfaction with what our adult lives have turned into and make people much more accepting of them.
Chris has some nice pics on Pixelsumo and you’ll want to check out the rest of his playgrounds postings whilst you’re there.
Tagged as:
bruno taylor,
pixelsumo,
Play,
public