Award of Distinction in Interactive Art
Prix Ars Electronica ― 2012
Take me with you ― Artspace at Realm
Melbourne ― Australia ― 2020
Responsibility ― Vogele Kultur Zentrum,
Zurich ― Switzerland ― 2013
ISEA ― The Rocks
Sydney ― Australia ― 2013
Prix Ars Electronica
Linz ― Austria ― 2012
Melbourne Festival International Arts Festival
Melbourne ― Australia ― 2011
Created in collaboration with lead artists Isobel Knowles & Van Sowerwine, It’s a jungle in here is an interactive installation that explores the boundaries between what’s ok and what’s not in everyday encounters. Two participants become performers in a drama in which they have little control.
How would you react if someone started behaving inappropriately, or aggressively? Do you try to pretend it isn’t happening, or protest and take action?
As the participants find themselves forced into the role of attacker and victim, a live feed of each participant’s face is placed onto the animated characters, channeling the tensions brought forth as the social compact begins to collapse.
This is the question posed by It’s a jungle in here, an interactive installation that inserts two people into a simulated environment and has them respond to a series of increasingly unsettling encounters.
Participants using the work first experience the surprise of seeing their own faces incorporated into the animation. They then often start to act out the appropriate facial expressions to go with the narrative and take great pleasure in participating in the story. The delight of seeing their own faces on various characters with different genders and hairstyles momentarily distracts from the action taking place. As they are drawn into the narrative, however, and realise that they are affecting the story through the use of the button and microphone they become more involved in the action and begin to feel implicated. As the stories reach their climax users become more unsettled and the underlying themes of the narrative content emerge.
Main website: It’s a jungle in here
CREDITS
Written, Directed & Animated by
Isobel Knowles & Van Sowerwine
Interactivity & Programming
Matt Gingold
Assistant Programming
Oliver Marriott
Sound Design
Finn Robertson
Carpentry
Donald Russell
Supported by the Australia Council For the Arts
MATERIALS
Custom Wood Cabinet
2 x Screens, Headphones, Distance Sensors, Mouse Balls
Arduino, openFrameworks
