TeamLab – Japanese digital design collective

TeamLab is a collaborative creative group consisting of various professionals from different fields of practice in the digital society. Their aim for their projects is to achieve a balance between art, science and technology. TeamLab believes that digital technology can expand art and allow  digital art can create new relationships between people.

For this reflection I will be talking about one of their recent work in Art Science Museum: Story of the Time when Gods were Everywhere. In this digital artwork, it provokes interaction and crazy beautiful artistic visuals. When the children touches the screen which contains Chinese and Japanese characters. After that, the words then transformed into animals, other organisms and natural elements:  wind, rain, trees and mountains . Just like that, a story is being created. With every interaction, a new object is breed from the characters and they co-exist and interact. Children using their touch to keep changing the world, and together creating and experiencing a new story each time.

This work encourage people to rethink the relationship between humans and nature as well as their relationship with the world. It teaches the kids that whatever action is introduced, there is an outcome or possible consequence after it. The paradigm in traditional art has always been to treat the existence of viewers as question-less takers. However, it is different for interactive art. One key principle of interactive art is the connection between the behaviors of the viewers and the influence on the art. Story of the Time when Gods were Everywhere blurs the line between the art and the audience, confusing what is 2D and what is 3D. The large screen allows them to set the feeling of the environment and allow the audience to fully immerse themselves in the screen. The intense and vibrant colors attracts the viewers but also overwhelm them, and providing the kids with a very happy and uplifting environment.

I believe that the constant changing of the interaction between the animals that they breed is very interesting because a new story line is boring with a random interaction from a complete stranger. With smartphones being a big part of kids’ growth, this co-creating experience through a large common digital screen is exactly what kids in the 21st century needs. The main aim of the work is for the children to enjoy moving their bodies about freely in a shared space, interacting with other children, collaboratively creating in a “co-creative” experience, and creating an artwork and a story. The digital technology paired with visuals are expanding the conception of interactive art today. Furthermore, these techniques can liberate art from a being traditional and one-sided, hence creating this space where both the artist and the audience are contributing the artwork together.

 

 

Reading Assignment Reflection

Bibliography: Dixon, Steve. Digital Performance: A History of New Media in Theater, Dance, Performance Art and Installation. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2007.

I find this article very intriguing as the authors talked about how the vast exploration with digital technology within performing arts has been crucial for the past few years. As we ourselves can witness around us, performance artists have been constantly instigating digital new media into their pieces, and new forms of interactive media have been heavily incorporated into the world of art. The impacts of the new media technologies diversifies the types of performing arts and providing the traditional live performance art a new taste.

These types of performance are usually  unscripted, random, spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. It felt like the artists were engaging with the audiences’ own curiosity and interpretation to be part of their works so that work is an artwork that communicates both ways.

The introduction to the usage of computers have become popular and an essential part of new performance pieces during the process and the main production of the performance. The writers’ overarching knowledge of the digital technology used was concluded by analyzing the history of art movements and event, and technical innovations which contribute to the interactive digital components which were used to engage with the audience and to stand out, introducing a new artist to the work. The book talks about topics related to digital performance practice, specifically performance themes, movements and events that concern the body, space and time. I feel like the new era’s artists who digitally represent their performance are introducing a new artistic genre that is both contemporary, experimental and avant-garde. To me, it is obvious that the link between interactive designs and performance art is a mutually beneficial and so much more to explore, I am glad the industry is constantly pushing boundaries and merging both worlds together.

INTER MISSION “LIFE CIRCUIT”

Reflection:

In this work, a person wears a head piece device that is attached to other devices on his arms etc. He the proceeds to navigates around the space of the museum and the audience. As he he do so, his head gear constantly changes live visuals into sounds. This causes him to be very disoriented and confused, bumping to a couple of people on the way. Moreover, what he sees from the screen in the head piece would constantly be distorted, which was caused by the movements of his body which he navigates around the crowd.

I was very intrigued by Urich’s the idea of an input and an output in which he removed one of human’s most dependent sensory and replaces it with a technology, and then also messing up the visuals being shown by the technology (something more artificial). Moreover, the work constantly engages the viewers and it almost felt like we were are as on our toes as the person experiencing it first hand. This forms a connection between us and the artist and it feels like we are experiencing this new world he is portraying to us.

Interactive Media 1 | Inspiring Example of Interactive Art

Interactive art is a form of art that involves the spectator in a way that allows the art to achieve its purpose. It normally refers to products and services on digital computer-based systems which respond to the user’s actions.

Plane White by Carina Ow

Carina graduated with a BA Architecture degree from the School of Architecture of the National University of Singapore.

The “Plane White” installation features Wassily Kandinsky’s Composition VIII painting. In this mixed media display, the objective was to redesign the “real-virtual” boundary between the visitor and the digital dimension. The notion of touch and spontaneous social interaction is reintroduced, reviving the human dimension.

The installation is an interactive digital experience for Wassily Kandinsky’s famed painting “Composition VIII.” Kandinsky himself lived with a psychological condition that made him “hear colors”; he associated each shade with a specific musical note, making a entire artwork signify a finished song. Like Kandinsky, this work uses multi-sensory way by blurring the line between the visitor and the digital dimension. The artwork feels tangible to the viewer as they go through the motions recreating Kandinsky’s images on the wall.

Materials used:

  • touch sensory screen
  • projector
  • laptop
The large surface supports multiple concurrent users to interact with the screen, provokes curiosity, and encourages movement, participation and social exchange. Users literally feel their way around the design script and shape their own experience.
My reflection
  • DIWO: Creating something together with others.

I really like the idea this interactive work is portraying, it made use of the DIWO concept which play a large role in creating an interactive work. This gives the work an extra dimension in which the participants can not only interact among one another but also with the piece to create something along side with the artist. This creates a sense of connectivity among the audience and a bond between the artist, artwork and audience themselves.

I really like the relationship Ow was trying to convey, that is between sound and something visual is very interesting. The idea of giving sound a tangible form and color gives us a completely new viewpoint to what we could only process with our ears. Moreover, even though the materials used is kept to minimal, the material support is designed to be highly palpable, enhancing the tangible aspect of the multi-dimensional interface.