An interactive, collaborative, light painting that connects artists and their neighbourhood.
Background
Galerie Heba is a central meeting point in the neighbourhood Wrangelkiez - an atelier, a gallery, a place for political organising, and a welcoming space just to hang out. I’m pretty lucky that my apartment in Berlin is just upstairs, because I’ve learnt a lot about community and met a heap of great people by spending time there. It’s the workspace of Hermann Solowe, an artist who makes intricate, organic, and figurative sculpture from strands of newspaper.
Development
Not long after I learnt the basics of vvvv - software for developing interactive graphics - Paul and I were having a few drinks with Hermann and his brother Didi in the gallery. I was hungry to see what else I could do with vvvv and I’d been playing around with a patch for drawing using a Wacom graphics tablet. Surrounded by Hermann’s work, inspiration struck.
The impromptu installation team swung into action and a few beers later we had a projector hung and a running patch that let you draw with light directly onto Hermann’s sculptures. The subtle tones of the sculptures were overlaid with vivid, glowing colours, each person creating a new interpretation.
Presentation
We had so much fun that we decided to take it to the public. A large shark sculpture was chosen as the light painting surface. The following week was Lange Nacht der Bilder and we invited our neighbours to The Shark Says Hai.
People were welcomed to drop in, have a bite to eat, drink, chat, and play with the light painting installation. There were many different and unique shark patterns created through the evening. Kids, adults, artists, and non-artists all took part in a night of public art-making.
I had a really fun time and I was honoured to collaborate with Hermann in producing this work.
Technology
A Behringer MIDI controller and Wacom graphics tablet were connected to my laptop running a vvvv patch. Using the knobs on the MIDI controller participants could set the size and colour of their brush. This was previewed on the laptop screen. Drawings made on the graphics tablet were projected onto the shark sculpture.
Installation
October 2014
Galerie Heba
Berlin, Germany
Role
Concept
Interaction design
Software development
Cook
Collaborators
Hermann Solowe
Dietrich Solowe
Paul Zubrinich
Tools and Technology
vvvv
Wacom graphics tablet
Behringer MIDI controller
Newspaper strand sculpture