Rollable Displays
I think we were talking about this last time…
Blog
Mechanics Alive
There’s an event there called Mechanics Alive which involves the infamous Hunkin and I reckon is worth a visit. Has anyone seen it? Here is the summary…
SNIP——-
6 August - 10 September
Cabaret Mechanical Theatre presents Mechanics Alive!!
Ron Fuller, Michael Howard, Tim Hunkin, Peter Markey, Keith Newstead, Paul Spooner and Carlos Zapata
This summer the Gallery will be alive with the sound of clicking cogs, cranks and cams. Cabaret Mechanical Theatre’s collection of automata blend art, technology and philosophy to create mechanical sculptures with a wry sense of humour, individuality and an offbeat view of life. The exhibition reveals how automata work illustrated by original and new pieces by leading artists including Tim Hunkin and Ron Fuller who live in Suffolk. Visitors are encouraged to interact with the show and can make their own automata at the Gallery. The Gallery shop will be selling a selection of automata kits, books and videos to amuse and distract all ages.
SNIP——-
Go to Bury Gallery Website and click on current programme. I can’t offer you a direct web link because their site is broken with javascript and frame problems.
Touch Me
Matt Iles and myself went to the Touch Me exhibition at the V&A and enjoyed a number of tactile objects.
Favourites include the dance mat Pacman, the strokeable plant interface and of course Reb’s text pebble. The show was particularly interesting to us because it contained both digital and more traditional exhibits tied together by a strong theme - and one that explores a sense that is often ignored.
Sadly the exhibition has now finished but Matt and myself will tell you all about it on Wednesday or look at the (excellent) website.
WAG - Regeneration
The Wolsey Art Gallery (WAG) has converted St Mary-at-the-Quay in Ipswich into gallery space during its renovation. I visited it on Saturday and experienced a number of installations including video and sound art.
The exhibition is called Regeneration and is open until the 17th September here is the link:-
I felt that although the pieces were interesting in themselves they failed to make optimum use of the space ( i.e. few concessions were made to the fact it was a church nave and not a white cube space.) I would have also liked to see them exploit the the unifying theme of regeneration more.
However having said that it certainly well worth a visit and I think the location is a good one (by the docks; central but not in a shopping centre.)
If we could achieve something at least equal to this I for one would be pleased.
Audio pipe forest
Paul and I, with the help of others have been working up some ideas for a multi-channel audio recording piece.
Pipes would hang down from the ceiling which you can both listen to and speak into. Each different pipe would carry a different channel or game.
Many of the recordings you would expect to hear when you interacted with it are from previous visitors talking into one of the pipes. There are likely to be a lot of simultaneous channels running at one time.
Part of the joy of this piece is the spectacle we imagine if a few people are interacting with the pipes at one time, each being asked to search for a different colour pipe, shout a different thing.
There is also a nice temporal disjunction here, with people unknowingly engaging in a dialogue with someone else in the exhibit who could be there right now, or who could have been there last week.
Cornstarch is the most amazing thing
Check the videos at this page
The videos work for me with the VLC player but not the quicktime player, in case anyone has trouble seeing them.
Meetings
We meet every two weeks, on Mondays - often in McGinty‘s pub in Ipswich. Our next meeting is Monday 11th August, at 8pm.
Introduce yourself on the mailing list and we may have a meeting in your honour, to find out what you’re interested in, and what you can teach us.
Actions
Everyone
for next meeting
- one object for show and tell - regale us with stories of your lucky toenail
- one idea for an exhibit - remember not necessarily new, just something you like, and think you might be able to build with others’ help
Matt Iles
- report back about the gallery space near Mecca Bingo
Venues
Matt Iles to investigate Mecca Bingo
Christchurch mansion a possibility?
Hayley might know of spaces or places?
Fragments
Here is a load of fragments of thought which haven’t been turned into actual pieces for the upcoming preview and exhibition. Perhaps they will stimulate some new angles of thought when regurgitated.
- Rice paper/waterpistol lazerquest
- Guess Who
- Street Olympics
- Stalker Survey
- Bunny Killer
- Video Feedback
- Unbreakable mirror
- Self-opening umbrellas
- Conway’s Game of Life as a standalone piece
Have things on the streets
Milgram Experiments in Ipswich
Dave’s distance and time squidgy map
Truman show - making you the centre - exhibits follow you around and respond to you
People engaging with an inocuous looking piece are actually being
projected onto the town hall.
Hot coals
The smell and sound of singing
Using glass with cam - people writing on it
Follow the white rabbit
TV which responds to being hit, or being moved - e.g. image stays still
project fur onto people
shadow puppets then system elaborates on what you’re doing with your hands
hall going back a long way, using oil, lifts with fake holes
Being in a giant’s ear.
Jane, losing clothes interactively
Own weather system
Uncomfortable interfaces
Lists of people not allowed to die.
Human Sudoku
Bitumen dripping from the ceiling super slow
Indoor blimps/balloons