new genre public art is taking over the streets, re-purposing public spaces in innovate and exciting ways. the panel member of the onedotzero_adventures in motion ‘city interventions’ discussion have three very different practices all working in the public space, making for a lively and thought provoking conversation around the purpose and concepts of public art.

jason bruges has his own company and has made some interesting site specific works sensory reactive works which have both human and environmental inputs. he talked us through recent work including a commission for the olympic delivery authority. jason’s work is an intelligent, integrated response to the public space, allowing the audience to feel their presence not only in the physical environment but also its social implications. in the panel discussion he drew focus to the methods he employs to retain artistic control over his work despite mostly working commercially, as well as the masses of legal issues generated when doing public artwork by the book.

this was a great chance to hear from the GRL founder about how he legally and illegally invades public space to create artworks. I love his idea of ‘geek graffiti’; bringing simple open-source technology to the streets. Open-source was very much the focus of bruges discussion. james felt the development and open-sourcing of simple technology allows bombers and taggers to reclaim what has become a technologically authoritative cityscape. working to defeat the ‘global boring’ by ‘bringing back the rebel’ into the public space.

deadly knitshade brings this rebellious public art zeitgeist to a feminised craft world. by calling the work craft instead of art seems to allow her to relinquish a conceptual public responsibility for the work and concentrate on the ‘fun’ element (as well as avoid an angry brush in with the long arm of the law!). knitshade is part of the knit the city yarn-storming group who’s work has included a phone box cosy and more recently, and self admittedly more culturally relevant, a nursery rhyme inspired yarn storm of 6 london churches. knitshade explained that for them it wasn’t so much about the audience response to their work but the community attitude of the knitters. she also focussed the discussion on the transient nature of the work and how documentation of the work in place is, to her, the real artefact.

the panel discussion weaved in a fun and silly way through the personal opinions each artist had of the public space. these juxtaposed ideas made for a lively debate and certainly shed light on the changing cityscape. both yarn bombing and open-source tech feel like very different methods used to reclaim the evolving cityscape; the change being brought about by many influences, including that of innovative public space artists such as jason bruges; so the debate over who has rights to alter the public space was particularly lively.

great insights into the changing cityscape, all of which seem like great fun!

written by

holly clarke

glowing pathfinder bugs by squidsoup allows you manipulate and play with virtual bugs living in a sandpit. over the weekend, people have been digging paths in the sand, then watching as the bugs wander along it, seeing as the bugs grow and even transform into butterflies and in my case taking delight in squishing the bugs. the fun seems endless and somewhat mesmerising. portable pixel playground was brought to the festival by folly, the leading digital arts organisation based in lancaster, uk and we’re very glad it was.

www.squidsoup.com

www.portablepixleplayground.org

throughout the week onedotzero_adventures in motion festivities have continued into the wee hours in the morning. on thursday there was spectacular breakdancing battles, brought to us by partizan’s ‘turn it loose’. the BFI’s floor has never been so polished.

friday night was the turn of h5 + etienne de crécy. coming all the way from over the channel and following the uk premiere of logorama there was a special dj set. lively music, a lively crowd, made for a extremely fun night. with people making for the dance floor and dancing the night away to the music.

last night saw dark fibre take over the bfi foyer for a melange of audio-visual delights and a few hundred people enjoying the pleasures of saam, yimono and a stunning performance from zan lyons.

last but by no means least, tonight to wrap up the festival excitement dazed and confused will be celebrating fashion and innovative film. the festival will be going out with a bang

tinker.it! has been running a family friendly toy hacking workshop as part of the family fun day today, teaching simple electronics by taking toys apart. families, kids and bigger kids brought toys they wanted to dissemble and tinker (no pun intended) into wacky objects, that were more desirable to them; a remote control car turned into a remote flipping winged moth mobile! animal toys were turned into creatures that ran away when they sense movement near by and someone even made a remote controlled green bubble machine. this was a fun opportunity for kids (not matter what size) to enjoy learning, how to adapt their old toys into fun toys that are more appealing to them and they can were proud to say they  had made with the help of tinker.it team!

at the end of the workshop, everyone who took part, presented there working wacky creations and the tinker.it! team were kind enough to give the kid a new toy to continue the fun at home with.

A So touch multi-users application running on a Mindstorm multi-touch table

during the onedotzero_adventures in motion festival, the BFI has seen break dancing battles in the foyer, an infestation of virtual bugs, an attack of the 50ft identity but today there was an invasion of the childlike kind. children both big and small have been enjoying the studio aka wokshop: sprites film and funday. a special new programme for our next generation of film makers.