GraceoftheNorth

Come Out and Play...Pong (sort of)

This weekend we volunteered and played at the Come Out and Play Festival, hosted by Eyebeam in Chelsea. Eyebeam is a gallery/research lab/studio space that "engages cultural dialogue at the intersection of the arts and sciences." Exploration of the connection between technology and art is foremost. They are also commited to working with students and the community on projects. We toured Eyebeam on Friday afternoon. A highlight was speaking with the guys from the Grafitti Research Lab about their work and some project ideas for our group. The idea of us making and using their "throwies" (magnetized led lights) was popular.
The Come Out and Play festival headquarters was Eyebeam. Saturday Karina and I headed down to Chelsea to see what was going on.
One of the games I caught was a revamped version of Pong, called Sonic Body Pong. Instead of the Atari game, participants played in real space using their bodies as the paddles. Each player wore a construction helmet with a large green rectangle attached. In addition, they wear headphones, hence the Sonic element of this pong. The players relied on sound, rather than their vision, to track and hit the ball. They decided where to move based on the sound of the approaching ball. The movements of the players were taped and represented as the original pong on a moniter for those watching. There seemed to be a serious learning curve for this game. Interesting how little we generally rely on our sense of hearing in modern day to day life. I was quite impressed with a guy on crutches playing as well. Basically he was doubly handicapped. It was pretty interesting to watch, although if the moniter had been bigger the whole experience would have been more dynamic.
The whole concept of the festival was interesting to me, because honestly how long has it been since we as adults genuinely played? There's a distinct difference between playing golf or bridge and playing flashlight tag in Central Park.

Conflux: The Pansy Project

I turned up at Conflux a few minutes before 11am with the 24 Hour Road Trip Group (more on that tomorow). I particularly enjoyed talking to Paul Harfleet about his work on The Pansy Project. The project was more personal as well as more political than many other works I saw during the festival. Paul returns to streets or locations where he experienced verbal homophobic harassment or abuse and plants Pansies. The plants are appropriately enough named after the abuse he encountered. I really appreciated the concept of turning negative experiences into oportunities for reflection and positive reactions. Paul described the project as a way of expressing and releasing his anger caused by homophobic abuse. He has a gallery show in London comming up in October, so hopefully I'll be able to attend and check it out when we get there. Check out my flickr for more pictures from Conflux, including The Pansy Project.