PERFORMANCE INSTALLATION
We often think of communities as concrete and lasting, but community can be momentary and ephemeral, blooming as need requires. Hand-held architectures create structures for such intimacies, opening up dialog in the exchanges of the human simian. Such objects problematize our technophilic obsession with mobile, personal devices and the continually shrinking, miniaturized electronics that pervade our lives. This project builds on the artists concerns with social ecology, particularly supporting systems that promote positive, momentary engagement in ephemeral group exchanges. The pervasiveness, use and rapid change of new media and technology continue to have influence in our society. Media ecology considers our highly mediated experience as an environment and the impact of such highly mediated environments on our lives.
AVIO! (audio-visual, interact, object (2009)) is an installation around hand-held improvisatory audio-visual objects, including the Mobispheres that begins to incorporate space and tracing the interaction of objects, people and environments. This was accomplished with the inclusion of suspended globes that were activated by sound. My intent was to engage the visitor with technology in a creative, playful manner, exploring momentary intersections of sound, light and image with the other visitors in the space.
The gallery visitor was immersed in an improvisational realm, which served to sensitize them to the collaborative potential of the objects, people and environment of the installation. Thinking about interactivity was important in the inception of the work. This was accomplished through design thought related to functional and perceptual models of interactivity.
Video produced by the Science Gallery: