Monday, October 19, 2009

Interactive Architecture and Transdisciplinary Convergence (and Hand from Above, by Chris O'Shea)

I recently came across the Interactive Architecture blog when I was researching projects such as the Sentient City exhibition in New York City and other exhibits involving the use of large screen displays and building facades, some that interact with mobile devices. There's a lot of convergence going on, as folks from game design, mobile gaming, networking, engineering, industrial design, art, alternative reality, geography, dance, music, architecture, and other disciplines, have embraced new forms of technologies in their work.

According to the website,  "Interactive Architecture covers emerging architectural and artistic practices where digital technologies & virtual spaces merge with tangible and physical spatial experiences. An active architecture, sensing, observing, feeling, listening, thinking, reacting, proposing, adapting, learning, even sometimes interacting. It is an architecture in constant flux best suited to prototyping and semi-permanent installations."

A recent post on the Interactive Architecture blog was of artist Chris O'Shea's "Hand from Above" project, a joint co-commission between FACT (Foundation for Art & Creative Technology), Liverpool City Council for BBC Big Screen Liverpool, and the Live Sites Network.  The installation premiered during the Abandon Normal Devices Festival.


Hand from Above from Chris O'Shea on Vimeo. (Written using openFrameworks & openCV. Sounds by Owen Lloyd.)

"Just imagine walking through your town or city centre, watching yourself on the Big Screen, when all of a sudden a giant finger appears and starts to play with you!...Hand From Above encourages us to question our normal routine when we often find ourselves rushing from one destination to another. Inspired by Land of the Giants and Goliath, we are reminded of mythical stories by mischievously unleashing a giant hand from the BBC Big Screen. Passers by will be playfully transformed. What if humans weren’t on top of the food chain? Unsuspecting pedestrians will be tickled, stretched, flicked or removed entirely in real-time by a giant deity"

SOMEWHAT RELATED
Here are a few posts from the Interactive Architecture blog archive:
Interfacing Architecture for a Network Society - Adam Somlai-Fischer -- Aether architecture

BBC's BIG SCREENS 

CHRIS O'SHEA & HAND FROM ABOVE


Interactive Architecture's Recommendations

Interactive Architecture-Related Websites
Bldgblog
Eyebeam
Hyperexperience
Infosthetics
Luminapolis
Nanoarchitecture
Pixelsumo
Rhizome
Spatial Robots
This Happened
We Make Money Not Art


Interactive Architecture Courses/Programs
Adaptive Architecture and Computation Course Modules  (UCL Bartlett School of Graduate Studies)
Unit 14 The Experimental Toy Factory (UCL Bartlett School of Architecture)
Design Interactions  (Royal College of Art)
MA: Architecture and Digital Media (School of Architecture and Built Environment:  University of Westminster)
Media Lab (MIT)





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