Insane in the Membrane: Inter-Activated Public Art

Christopher Janney above "Circling" at DFW International Airport, below "Sonic Forest" as temporarily installed at the Bonnaroo Music Festival

Juame Plensa's "Crown Fountain" in Chicago pictured above and below. The large digital screen displays over 1000 different faces of fellow Chicagoens and combines new technology with the age old public fountain.

When most think of art it's almost always a given that art is not touched, just looked at. Most people, while taking in the elements of a piece, cannot feel them, hear them audibly or be physically affected by them...this is simply not the case anymore. As the art world begins to expand to include the great sweep of knowledge that technology has brought about a new level of public art is slowly but steadily being birthed. Believe it or not but us Texan's are on the cutting edge of this. The first two images were pieces by an artist, Christopher Janney, with a background in architecture, sculpture and music. He has recently been commissioned to design an interactive parking garage for downtown Fort Worth. Instead of using only one of his mediums he combines all three to create large scale public art pieces, which are interactive.

"Sonic Forest", the first image shown in this entry, was designed to be interactive with sound and light and has been featured in different locations with slight adjustments to the sound and light depending upon location. This piece is comprised of 25 eight foot columns, each outfitted with with four photo-sensors so that four people can interact with each column at once. There are also led lights and loudspeakers which are powered by JBL drivers. All in all the grid of columns looks like an electronic forest and as people pass between the 'trees' they explore the sonic forsest.

Janney is set to complete his parking garage within the next couple of years in Fort Worth, for now we know speakers will play 'sounds of fort worth' and as utilized by Janney in other pieces large, colored, transperent material will give off an ethereal quality as well as various other lighting inside the garage.

So what's the point you might say? Art with interactive qualities has the potential to win over a whole new crowd. A crowd who are quick to dismiss abstract/conceptual artistic themes may feel more a part of a piece than in a normal stand/look situation. The public as a whole may not necessarily understand the significance of minimalistic art but if the piece allows for interaction (i.e. motion triggered lights or sound) the viewer is more likely to leave feeling like they contributed to a work rather than simply gawk at it in confusion. When art is in the public realm it isn't just for the artistically educated, it is for everyone and so in a perfect world the public as a whole will enjoy their art. I think that interaction between viewer and piece is the perfect way to meet the masses half way on this.