"The Fair Grounds: Bumper Ballet" is a new media art installation by DROPSTUFF MEDIA consisting of a refurbished bumper car track about 6 x 12 meters across. There are four bumper cars placed on the track, distinctively recognizable by their high gloss unicolor polyester layer and colored in the template of ‘De Stijl’, the famous Dutch modernist art movement of Piet Mondriaan and Gerrit Rietveld. Any visitor can get a ticket, hop in and take one of the cars for a ride. Initially, these bumper cars function as normal as participants can drive the cars around the track. After a few minutes, the system takes over and both the steering wheel and the gas pedal lose their functionality. From that point on, the cars perform a dance. A bumper car ballet is created as the cars perform a preprogrammed routine of movements, moving in unison across the track. They continue to bump into each other and the borders of the track as they seemingly dance to the music and visuals of the 'Dansende DAFjes': a 1970's company video of the famous Dutch car company DAF.

Bumper Ballet playfully tackles the implications of current emerging autonomous technology. As participants become a direct subject to the cars, they experience first hand what it means to 'lose control' when the system takes over.

Bumper Ballet is the latest instalment of The Fair Grounds, a project consisting of multiple independent installations where traditional amusement rides have been updated with new artistic and social narratives. The result is a truly new fairground, where every ride has been modified or enhanced and tells a surprising story in the public space: popular culture meets high tech and high art. By combining these worlds, The Fair Grounds creates a broader, more inclusive artistic place where one’s own experience is key: to see, touch, hear, taste and experience it for yourself.