the big idea BY alex van tol
Bright Lights BOLD CITY Meet two Victoria companies whose tech-based art installations are transforming the way people interact with public spaces — and energizing the city.
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hen was the last time you lit up a dull urban parkade with your own musical mixing skills, or changed the colours of the branches on an illuminated tree by clapping or yelling? Thought so. Well, there’s no time like tonight. Thanks to a couple of arts-focused tech companies, Victoria is now home to a growing number of interactive art installations that are delighting the senses and drawing crowds. Take, for example, the musical staircase on the south side of the Bastion Square Parkade. Designed by tech-based art installation company Monkey C Interactive and funded by the City of Victoria through its Art on Parkades public art competition, each of the staircase’s 10 landings lights up and plays music depending on how users interact with a series of tiny photon sensors embedded in the metal railings. Effectively, this staircase is a 50-foot-high musical instrument. It’s not advertised, nor is it really explained (there is a small placard at the base), but the staircase’s flashing lights and synthesizer riffs are easy to figure out — and they’re a powerful magnet for community interest and engagement. As people stumble upon it, they delight in it, tell passersby about it, post about it on social media and come back with friends in tow. “Because it’s an active thing, interactive art can engage people differently than other kinds of art,” says filmmaker and media artist Scott Amos, one half of Monkey C Interactive. “It’s a terrific way to draw people to a part of a neighbourhood, gather them on a street corner or spark conversations at a storefront.” Amos tells me about Atagamaton, a
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motion-controlled kinetic sculpture that was housed in Victoria’s G++ gallery a few years back. Created by Amos and his business partner David Parfit in collaboration with Victoria’s Limbic Media, Atagamaton tracked users’ hands to trigger sound and motion. The novelty drew people together in their exploration of this weird and wondrous moving machine, says Amos, recalling a posting on Craigslist from someone who had connected with a complete stranger over the motion-controlled art piece. “It basically said, ‘Hi, we played on this thing and we never actually met, so I wanted to reach out,’” says Amos. “That changed our perspective on what our art can actually do.” Built over a series of months and officially launched in July 2016, the musical staircase immediately drew crowds. “By the end,” says Amos, “we couldn’t work on it any time of the day except between 2:30 and 5:00 a.m. or else we’d have to stop people from playing on it so we could work on it. We’d be working on it and we’d hear people come up with their friends and say, ‘Oh my god, you have to see this thing.’” Other interactive art installations are creating visual interest and sparking conversations in town, including the colourful motion-reactive ThinkCubes along Harbour Road at Dockside Green — another Monkey C project, sponsored by InterArts, Rifflandia and others — and the Innovation Tree at Government and Wharf. A collaboration between the Downtown Victoria Business Association (DVBA), the City and VIATEC, the Innovation Tree’s 1,000 LED lights change and flicker as they respond to nearby sounds.
“The tree interacts with its environment,” says Justin Love, president of Limbic Media. “You see a horse walk by, and you can see the lights reacting.” Limbic’s sound-reactive Aurora lighting system means the colour of the Innovation Tree’s lights can be changed remotely, with a few clicks on a smartphone, thereby reducing costs. “So the installers for the City and DVBA don’t have to take down the lights every Christmas season,” says Love. “It can be reprogrammed.” Green for St. Patrick’s Day, for example, or red and white for Canada Day. (Naturally, the lights react to the fireworks, adding to the spectacle.) It’s the Experience that Matters While direct ROI for interactive art installations is difficult to measure, there is no arguing that they change the nature of a space in a way that something more static — say, a mural — simply can’t. “It’s a bit like how they have transitioned the experience with malls,” says Love. “It’s not just about the shopping; it’s about the whole experience of being in a place that’s nice, with fountains and lights and maybe a rink and tree at Christmas. The more people you bring, the more people will buy.” It’s a powerful business move, too. “Interactive art is pretty close in line with any other branding effort a company could have if they want to be perceived as thoughtful and participatory,” says Joey MacDonald, director of programming for Thinklandia, Victoria’s creative festival held every fall. “Companies sometimes view art as a luxury that’s only accessible with a surplus of energy or time or money. But if companies innovatively