Hybrid Materiality: Engaging the Physical Interaction through Digital Means
“I will miss hearing the sound of the birds every morning”, said a woman passing-by, while we were taking down Echelon, Danish studio Vertigo’s interactive light and sound sculpture that was exhibited on St Giles Square, at the base of the Modernist iconic building, at Tottenham Court Road, London. Vertigo had to drive from Copenhagen in a limited crew of two, wearing PPE at all times and keeping social distancing measures. This was a very different situation than their February installation trip. The pandemic prompted the installation to be extended, until borders opened for de-installation, and thus, enabled the installation to continue keeping the square full of light and sound, even for the few people that were still passing to engage with unique interaction in one of their few essential outings. Every time one would walk or cycle by St Giles Square, this digital urban forest would awaken to greet them.
I still, after many years and crazy artworks and exhibitions of which I’ve been part, experience overwhelming reward in audience reaction to a work, that an (invisible) creative team had been living and breathing for months to make happen. The case of Echelon added to the inevitable turn towards digital platforms and art mediums initiated by the pandemic lockdown make me reflect upon physical artworks and exhibitions requiring public interaction and the materials used to create them. Is there a place for materiality in an ever increasing digital new normal?
I contemplate my experience of working with artists, makers and creators, and the effort to organise the chaos of creative minds. Back in Greece, a peculiar place to create something physical, I learned the value of specialised markets and the unique input of traditional craftsmen. Having to describe things, that you have only imagined, re-thinking the intended use of everyday things, physically testing how smooth, how delicate, how bendy a material can be always beat the approach of online shopping. In my professional course, I have spent hours in messy studios, darkened laboratories and wood smelling workshops having unending conversations with colleagues and friends of widely different backgrounds about detail to deliver the best possible interaction with the public. The best physical interaction, using digital means, cutting edge technology, from the world’s most advanced laser systems to heavy architectural models of tens of thousands of parts and of course a tendency of breaking the rules were crucial to bring a physical experience that would change the public’s perspective of their built or physical environment. These experiences have a) created the strongest professional team bonds b) rewarded me with the observation hundreds of people discovering an idea that, unknowingly, has been collectively tormenting the minds of a group of people working across design, production and operations. I cannot even begin to remember how many times I’ve said, “it’s hard to put in words, you definitely need to see it to understand it…”
Conversely, I get lost in the pleasure of the technological investigation. Even after years working with the Hellenic Institute of Holography, I still pleasantly become confused by the ultra-realistic 3-Dimensional imaging seen in the Optoclones of the Faberge Eggs from St Petersburg created by their portable lab, or still get caught up in one of the optical illusions presented in their Light Alive exhibitions. I would always get distracted when a new working prototype would enter the workshop of Studio INI, such as Urban Imprint for A/D/O in New York, the playful installation that challenged the notion of architecture needing to be static.
Over the past few past weeks, our Futurecity team has been reporting on a great variety of digital placeshaping in relation to the inevitable closure of public-facing venues. While I have been astonished by the diversity in which creatives are exploring digital mediums to artistically bring communities together, I cannot help to feel nostalgic of a not-so-distant-time, when we were able to physically interact with culture. Not long ago, in a crowded Tate Modern, we got to take monochromatic selfies under yellow lights, in the retrospective of Olafur Eliasson’s works and at the same time and venue, got to see a great collection of inventive magnetic works made by Greek sculptor Takis. We got to queue around 180 Strand and then quietly sat on the floor to watch the amazing light shows by United Visual Artists at The Store X The Vinyl Factory. Passers-by still can dance along with their light shadow created by Random International’s Self & Other at the Albert Embankment and if the Eden Project in Cornwall was open to the public, one would be able to see fog rings coming out of Studio Swine’s Infinity Blue.
Right now, we are virtually roaming the streets of the West End to create a cultural strategy for the Heart of London Business Alliance. We are researching and testing different uses for spaces of Central London against the different art mediums that the streets can facilitate to transform in a new kind of gallery without walls that embraces the openness that the ‘new normal’ requires.
As museums and galleries have closed down their doors and will most probably be re-opening them for limited crowds, it is time to rethink the meaning and purpose of public art in a post Covid-19 arts community, where the analogue and the digital can co-exist and complement each other in harmony. Now more than ever, interactive artworks can flourish in central city points or small quiet neighbourhoods. It is imperative for the preservation and support of cultural institutions to explore new ways of taking their exhibits outside of their confined walls and for galleries to bring artists’ work into more accessible environments. It will be very interesting to see interactive creations, that would otherwise be living in the hard drives of heavy duty workstations or designers’ sketchbooks or even still in conversations between fellow creatives to take over the public realm and liven up the empty spaces that are yearning to be occupied again.
-George Kekatos, Projects Coordinator
Image: Echelon at St Giles Square. Credit: James Burnes