THE PLAYGROUND [2017]
Interactive Media Art. By Betty Sargeant and Justin Dwyer
ACT Festival, Asia Culture Center, SOUTH KOREA, October-December 2017.
Melbourne Knowledge Week Festival, State Library of Victoria, AUSTRALIA, May 2017
Ararat Art Gallery, AUSTRALIA, August 2017.
The Playground features a co-designed sculpture, interactive projection mapping and public participation. It is an interactive artwork by PluginHUMAN, Justin Dwyer and Betty Sargeant. Audiences use printed maps and online clues to engage in a treasure hunt. They find hidden sculptural pieces, take photos of their city environment and upload their photos to an online platform. When the public arrive at the exhibition area they connect the sculptural pieces they have found onto The Playground sculpture. All photos that are uploaded by the public are automatically animated in real-time and projected onto the sculpture. The Playground socially and physically engages audiences and personalises their experience of art and technology. This interactive artwork turns a public precinct into an art playground.
When audiences enter the exhibition space we also track the small sculptural piece that is in their hand and projection-map their personal ‘city environment’ photo onto the piece. This unique system is designed using VIVE hardware and TouchDesigner software. We track and project onto small moving objects in 3D space.
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CREDITS
Betty Sargeant ~ Artist (laser cut design), producer
Justin Dwyer ~ Artist (projection mapping), programmer
Andrew Ogburn ~ Music
The development of The Playground was supported by: Creative Victoria through Touring Victoria and the Ararat Regional Art Gallery.
Thanks to: Exertion Games Lab RMIT University.
ABOUT PluginHUMAN
PluginHUMAN is a multi-award-winning art duo led by Dr Betty Sargeant and Justin Dwyer. PluginHUMAN are at the progressive edge of their field, providing audiences with new cultural, environmental and scientific perspectives. Their artworks address the leading questions and concerns of our times.
PluginHUMAN’s work centres around the art of illumination. They create projection mapping, video artworks and led immersive multi-sensory environments. They use the medium of light to translate complex data into meaningful audience experiences.
PluginHUMAN has created commissioned artworks for institutions such as the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (Taiwan), the Asia Culture Centre (South Korea), Questacon (Australia’s National Science and Technology Centre), the Melbourne Museum (White Night Festival, Australia) and Experimenta (Australian triennial touring media art exhibition). They have exhibited in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia. PluginHUMAN were awarded the Rupert Bunny Foundation Visual Art Fellowship (2019/20); they’re developing new carbon neutral and carbon negative materials and working methods. They have also won Good Design Awards (2020 and 2018), and a Victorian Premier’s Design Award (2017).
PluginHUMAN has an acute understanding of the role that technology plays in contemporary society. They reimagine new technologies to produce artistic innovations, creating meaningful large and small scale audience experiences for indoor spaces and outdoor public arenas.
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