MONEY CONDUCTS ELECTRICITY
Place a coin or as many coins as you can from your pocket onto a table to create an electrical circuit; to make a connection.
The user places a coin onto the nylon plastic table, joining two of the slightly raised metal slugs thus creating an electronic circuit. The connection is detected instantly by a computer that then flashes an image (2-3 frames) onto the underside of the table, viewable on top; at the same time generating a ‘snappy’, ‘lightening like’ sound in sync with the image. This repeats slowly at random intervals (3-5sec) until the coin is taken off. The more coins on the table the quicker and more frequent it flashes.
My aim is to create a work that emphasizes interaction and encourages the user to consider and participate in a fiscal narrative with social consequences. This work is more than a live video installation, a virtual experience, a technological puzzle or gimmick; it focuses instead on actual user interaction and the experience of a result. The work was born from the phrase ‘Money Conducts Electricity’. The images represent randomly all things that money influences - oil industries, homeless people, political figures, mass production, education, the third world, war, music, environment, consumer choices etc.
A Game of Marbles
A Game of Marbles combines the school yard game of marbles with 3D computer gaming technology. Players battle against their opponents by flicking marbles which represent their on-screen characters around the ring. It’s a 3D shoot-em up game taken to another level… to another game… to a game of marbles.
The concept - to use a simple old game to control a new computer game. Is it the blood and guts that engages the player? Is it the idea? Are marbles as satisfying as the blood and guts or are people happy with marbles? It is an old game that gives lots of satisfaction. Rolling marbles is a simple idea - there is no plot and no graphics. Is it necessary to have all this other stuff? Created by Tim Devine and Gerard Mason
ElicitTV
ElicitTV offers the viewer an opportunity to play and manipulate content in real-time by simply waving their hands through the air, and by doing so create a barrier between the screen and the viewer and provoke an awareness or questioning of what is being broadcast.
If for example a child was set down to watch televsion but had the choice to play with the image they were viewing through body movement, would they be less inclined to glorify the content? Would the idea of a celebrity exist of be lessened?
ElicitTV, suggests that TV as it stands, is a one way experience and as a result is partly responsible for the glorification of the celebrity. In addition, what is broadcast is increasingly permeated by advertising campaigns and we are essentially left with billboards in our homes.
Elicit*
Elicit* establishes a virtual space in a very public open space for people to meet and interact with each other. Elicit* helps to introduce people. It is a 6×4m screen displaying a mirror image of the space. The image on the screen is exactly the same space but it has copies of each person as they move through the space. The aim is to create chance encounters with others in a virtual space and then possibly in the real space. In the past open public spaces such as squares were places for people to meet and talk. Virtual spaces are now the preferred place to meet. Elicit* might be both.
ElicitBILLBOARD
ElicitBILLBOARD detects an individual’s Bluetooth phone ID and generates a montage of the highest ranked images found searching the internet using that ID. If, for example, there are two people waiting at a bus stop, each broadcasting their Bluetooth phone ID, one is ‘George’ and the others name is ‘Alpha’, ElicitBILLBOARD searches for images on the internet using those names and generates a montage displayed on the ElicitBILLBOARD. So ‘George’ and ‘Alpha’ have created an image together for all the world to see, or at least the people on the next bus.
How do people use a ‘digital’ or ‘virtual’ identity. As an identity, alias or perhaps a voice? What does a Bluetooth ID reflect about you? Public spaces such as bus stops and train stations can be anonymous spaces while the World Wide Web is a giant visual resource generated and rated by its users. How would you feel if the rest of the world could see a representation of your ID and it was a misrepresentation of images from the www? How would you react if you went to the bus stop each realized that you were responsible for the image of your phone being displayed on a billboard because your Bluetooth ID was the model of your phone i.e. K608i?
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