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Prix
The Prix Ars Electronica Archive is a collection enabling search and viewing of all the submissions since 1987. The award-winning projects are documented with catalogue texts and audio-visual media. All other submissions can be searched by title/artist and displayed with year, category in list form. Please cite the credits (artwork name, artist and photographer) and only use the materials if your article is related to Ars Electronica.
Audience
“Audience” consists of a large crowd of head-size mirror objects. Each object moves its head in a particular way, simulating the most basic different characteristics of human behavior. Some chat amongst themselves, some shy away and others confidently move to grab your attention.
When members of the audience enter the perimeter of the installation, the mirrors inquisitively follow anyone they find interesting. Having chosen their subject, they all synchronize and turn their heads towards them. Suddenly that person can see their reflection in all of the mirrors.
They will watch this person until they lose interest, then either seek out another subject or return to their private chatter. The suddenly synchronized collective behavior of the objects is beyond the control of the viewer, as it is left entirely to their discretion to let go of their subject.
Conceptually, the installation aimed to reverse the roles of the viewer and the viewed during this involuntary interaction. Would other members of the audience experience the sensation of being ignored or excluded when they were not the center of attention? Would the installation create a feeling of uneasiness and apprehension? The intention was to start taking interaction with an installation further away from the screen or media wall and introduce it into a more physical, threedimensional space, and to begin to investigate whether machines can evoke diverse emotional reactions using the simplest of means. In the first showing of the piece it could be seen that some of the visitors were literally turning into performers, aiming to gain the attention of the mirrors, with the installation becoming their “audience”.
Links: http://www.random-international.com/news/2008/10/23/audience-at-the-royal-opera-house.html
When members of the audience enter the perimeter of the installation, the mirrors inquisitively follow anyone they find interesting. Having chosen their subject, they all synchronize and turn their heads towards them. Suddenly that person can see their reflection in all of the mirrors.
They will watch this person until they lose interest, then either seek out another subject or return to their private chatter. The suddenly synchronized collective behavior of the objects is beyond the control of the viewer, as it is left entirely to their discretion to let go of their subject.
Conceptually, the installation aimed to reverse the roles of the viewer and the viewed during this involuntary interaction. Would other members of the audience experience the sensation of being ignored or excluded when they were not the center of attention? Would the installation create a feeling of uneasiness and apprehension? The intention was to start taking interaction with an installation further away from the screen or media wall and introduce it into a more physical, threedimensional space, and to begin to investigate whether machines can evoke diverse emotional reactions using the simplest of means. In the first showing of the piece it could be seen that some of the visitors were literally turning into performers, aiming to gain the attention of the mirrors, with the installation becoming their “audience”.
Links: http://www.random-international.com/news/2008/10/23/audience-at-the-royal-opera-house.html
"Audience" was commissioned by Wayne McGregor (resident choreographer at the Royal Opera House London) in the context of the Deloitte Ignite Festival 2008.
rAndom International (UK). The London-based collective was founded in 2002 by Stuart Wood, Flo Ortkrass and Hannes Koch in order to create unique and experiential art and design projects. After working at studios as diverse as Olafur Eliasson, Philips Design and the BBC research laboratories, the three decided to set up their own permanent outfit in London in 2005. Working from the fringes of innovation in science, art and design, they have developed a series of products, installations and technologies that re-interpret the “cold” nature of the digital and emphasize the analog, often hands-on experience of the viewer.