Artists: Tempest van Schaik and Jenna Burchell
Title: Cameos and Genotypes
Medium: Interactive Installation
Date: 2008
Exhibition:
-Purchased by the Unisa gallery's permanent public collection
-Thami Mnyele Fine Arts Award (winner: Best New Media and Multimedia)
-Addict Openlab, Johannesburg
-Platform on 18th, Pretoria
-Fried Contemporary, Pretoria
Cameos and Genotypes is an interactive installation artwork exploring channels of communication or miscommunication with previous generations. It is a collaboration which won the Best New Media and Multimedia prize at the 2009 national Thami Mnyele Fine Arts Award, South Africa. The artwork has since been purchased for the Unisa gallery's permanent public collection in Pretoria.
Title: Cameos and Genotypes
Medium: Interactive Installation
Date: 2008
Exhibition:
-Purchased by the Unisa gallery's permanent public collection
-Thami Mnyele Fine Arts Award (winner: Best New Media and Multimedia)
-Addict Openlab, Johannesburg
-Platform on 18th, Pretoria
-Fried Contemporary, Pretoria
Cameos and Genotypes is an interactive installation artwork exploring channels of communication or miscommunication with previous generations. It is a collaboration which won the Best New Media and Multimedia prize at the 2009 national Thami Mnyele Fine Arts Award, South Africa. The artwork has since been purchased for the Unisa gallery's permanent public collection in Pretoria.
A spectator enters a barren room containing a typewriter on stilts, with the outline of an ornate frame projected across it. When they type their shadow automatically falls into the frame, and they become part of the artwork. Shadows of the letters they type escape from the shadow of the typewriter. For example, if the letter "Z" is typed, a shadow shaped like "Z" floats up and out of the typewriter. This gives the impression that striking the typewriter keys actually releases the letters into the air, but all we can see are their shadows. In this way typing becomes a public affair.
Certain keys have unexpected results, enticing the participant to explore the typewriter. The stilts of the typewriter are filled with nostalgic trinkets: photos, toys and other curiosities. Some of the items that appear on the stilts also appear as shadows attached to letters, for example a small doll on the stilts also accompanies the letter "Z" when typed. The remaining shapes which are attached to the floating letters, are silhouettes of trinkets from the artists' mothers' and grandmothers' homes. Underneath the body of the typewriter is a secret stash of crumpled letters which were created with the typewriter.
Certain keys have unexpected results, enticing the participant to explore the typewriter. The stilts of the typewriter are filled with nostalgic trinkets: photos, toys and other curiosities. Some of the items that appear on the stilts also appear as shadows attached to letters, for example a small doll on the stilts also accompanies the letter "Z" when typed. The remaining shapes which are attached to the floating letters, are silhouettes of trinkets from the artists' mothers' and grandmothers' homes. Underneath the body of the typewriter is a secret stash of crumpled letters which were created with the typewriter.
Vinyl lettering on wall: "This is an Interactive Art Work {Note: a typewriter requires a harder strike than a modern keyboard}"
The effect is created using an electronic keyboard, a computer and digital projector. Underneath the typewriter is a custom-made digital keyboard, which detects the keys that have been hit. These electronics send this information via a cable to a computer at the back of the room. Keystrokes trigger corresponding flash animations, which the computer displays on the digital projector.
Cameos and Genotypes was purchased by the Unisa Collection, Pretoria, South Africa.
