<!–Speaker: Lindsay MacDonald, University of Calgary, Canada
Date/Time: 1-2pm July 3, 2012
Location: 1.33a Jack Cole, University of St Andrews (directions)–>
Abstract:
In contrast to the romantic image of an artist working in alone in a studio, large-scale media art pieces are often developed and built by interdisciplinary teams. Lindsay MacDonald will describe the process of creating and developing one of these pieces, A Delicate Agreement, within such a team, and offer personal insight on the impact that this has had her artistic practice.
A Delicate Agreement is a gaze-triggered interactive installation that explores the potentially awkward act of riding in an elevator with another person. It is a set of elevator doors with a peephole in each door that entices viewers to peer inside and observe an animation of the passengers. Each elevator passenger, or character, has a programmed personality that enables them to act and react to the other characters’ behaviour and the viewers’ gaze. The result is the emergence of a rich interactive narrative made up of encounters in the liminal time and space of an elevator ride.
A Delicate Agreement is currently part of the New Alberta Contemporaries exhibition at the Esker Foundation in Calgary, Canada. For more information about the piece, please visit http://www.lindsaymacdonald.net/portfolio/a-delicate-agreement/.
About Lindsay:
Lindsay MacDonald is a Ph. D. student, artist, designer and interdisciplinary researcher from the Interactions Lab (iLab) at the University of Calgary in Canada. Lindsay’s approach to research and creative production combines methodology both from computer science and art, and she divides her time between the iLab and her studio in the Department of Art. Her research interests include interaction design, coded behaviour and performance and building interactive art installations.