Occasionally, you go to an event or see a film, and think “Damn, X years ago when I was imagining what my life would be like when I was older, this is what I thought I would be doing”, the last time it happened to me was when I went to see Ironman and wished I had become a ultra rich playboy millionaire techie superhero, but after going to Kinetica art fair on saturday night I came away with a slightly more realistic one, “Damn, I should have become a digital installation artist”.
Highlights included some fun optical recognition stuff from Holotronica (similar to this link
http://www.flaggedforfollowup.com/2009/02/ge-plug-into-the-smart-grid-digital-hologram.html)
and a proper 3d TV one of which I’ve been waiting to see for a while - they’re not bad, bit more work before they become commercial but I think we’re pretty close! The wall of hundreds of eyes that followed you as you walked past was also intriguing if not slightly creepy, which I believe was from the Kinetica museum along with Ivan black’s ceiling hanging interactive mobile type thing.
The bit that really made me think/slightly envious was the talk and exhibition from wrap3, who are doing some interesting stuff mapping VR on to physical objects using projectors, the likes of which were featured in the latest James Bond film, Quantum of Solace in the party scene (how do you get a job like that!?!). I like the concept of the virtual enhancing and modelling the physical especially when it’s melded with some thoughtful performance art (typically performed by a hot girl, don’t question my objectivity…) there’s clearly some exciting stuff that will emerge from these guys in the future. I’m just waiting for their website to come online!
In the mean time, to fulfill my superhero dreams, I have created a character fashioned from my chin called “beardman”, who creates a suit made entirely from beard hair and flies around the world righting injustice.
Tags: ironman, Ivan blacks, kinetica art fair, Kinetica museum, quantum of solace, vr mapping, wrap3