These old Circus posters depict animals made to perform painful, dangerous, abnormal stunts for our "amusement." Today, many circuses around the world still use animals as a form of entertainment and many of the animals are captured in the wild.
Campaigners say animals should be banned from circuses and there needs to be a change in the law to prevent wild animals suffering undignified and unnatural conditions. Campaigners have long argued that the use of animals in circuses should be banned because they are kept in areas too small for them, causing life-long mental torment. Many also suffer physical abuse during training and practices, they say, including an unnatural lack of exercise.
I am interested in finding a way of merging traditional low-tech kinetics with digital art to form the structure of my new media project. I have now reached the point in my investigation where I think it is necessary to take a step back and consider what the motivation behind my project proposal is.
One subject that emerged from my mind maps was the matter of animal conservation and the export trade. I am particularly concerned with primates and the illegal hunting, smuggling and sale of endangered species. This issue could be at the centre of my interactive project, providing information and raising awareness in an interesting, new way.
I will try not limit myself to only working with kinetics if another form of interactive installation seems the more appropriate solution.
Sennep is an interactive design company creating experiences for digital and physical environments.
The Interactive dandelion was commissioned for 'transvision' at the Victoria and Albert museum. The installation allows users to blow away the seeds of the dandelion clock using a real electric hairdryer, the seeds then reform to create another weed.
'blowing it apart is a popular pastime for children. The number of blows required to completely rid the clock of its seeds is deemed to be the time of day'. (Wikipedia)
Imagedrome has explored kinetic movement in a purely digital form, however, their work does not have the same tactile and aesthetic appeal of kinetic artists who produce three dimensional physical mechanical objects and sculptures. The interactive dimension of kinetic art is generally regarded as a precursor to the digital and computer art of today. I prefer the work of non-digital kinetic artists or designers who have combined the two elements of high and low technology.
Techart Group's "Office Live" is an interactive chain-reaction installation that consists of a series of four interconnected units. "Office Live" is an attempt to use the concept of kinetic art to represent the characteristics of modern office automation as well as the working life of the human involved.
The core concept is that the modern office, under a standard management procedure and automated office network and system management, has become a self-organizing and self-generating organism. The theme of "Office Live" is represented via the working environment of an office and its essential elements. The four units personified a fish manager, creative concept staff, work executor, and administrative staff respectively. Each installation is set on "standby" and "ready to activate". The "fish manager" plays the role of an immediate domino effect activator. By printing work instructions automatically from a printer and activating various devices sequentially, such as reviving the crumpled papers scattered on the desktop or automatically activating the screen, instantly switching the desktop from private personal tools to a ready workstation. Finally, during the whole process of reporting back to the fish manager, an automated working life circle is completed. There are no actual human involvement and activation throughout the entire process. The activation of the office scene domino effect is done through the swimming of the fish manager.
The four chain units consist of an interactive fish tank with a live fish, self-running crumpled papers, self-playing CDROM player and a desk with changing projected images. The Rube Goldberg Machine and Kinetic Art inspire the concept of this chain-reaction installation, but the interactive technical skills enhance the power of chain-reaction and make the installation more dynamic.
'Dots is the first work of Imagedrome’s ‘Digital Experience series’ which is planned in order to find experimental digital art works. ‘dots’ is to express the artistic movements of two basic graphic elements, dots and lines. ‘dots’ is consist of 9 stages, which contain abstract images and/or movements aligned by the creator. Every user who experiences ‘dots’ may break, gather, move, convert and change not only the images but also the visual concepts that was intended by the creator just by the user’s own mind.' (www.imagedrome.com/) Go to the interactive Shockwave sample
These kinetic wall pieces are powered by an electromagnet controlled by a micro processor. The processor runs embedded software which sends pulses of energy into the canvass surface. This energy transfers to the coloured sprung extensions of differing lengths which comprise an array. Andrew Ryder is in the resulting differential motion within the array and its perception as a whole.
The colours come from Ryders interest in the perception of colour and movement at dusk, in the transitional state between day and night vision.
"Grandfather Time" is a grandfather sized rolling ball clock. The clock itself is a spring wound movement. Every fifteen minutes the clock triggers a switch that releases a ball down the track. The track runs from the top to the bottom of the sculpture. As the ball makes its way to the bottom it strikes a single chime. The clock chimes an additional bell sounding out the hour on the hour.
