Visual Instrument is my installation shown at the La Napoule Art Foundation’s Do You See What I See? exhibition at the Freight Building in Denver. The exhibition included artwork by Lawrence Argent, Faith Ringgold, Sandy Skoglund, Will Clift, Kate Doyle/Andrew Binkley/Brad Gordon, Ali Hossaini, Sarah Hutt, Michael Gadlin, Phoebe Knapp, Jen Lewin, M12 Collective and Willem Volkersz.
La Napoule Art Foundation Clews Center for the Arts in Mandelieu-la-Napoule, France is a well known international residency program established in 1951. Alumni include Nobel Laureates Gao Xingjian and Derek Walcott. The La Napoule Art Foundation is dedicated to:
“preserving the legacy of Henry and Marie Clews and promoting art that serves the greater good, La Napoule Art Foundation seeks to nurture and inspire artistic talent, while fostering the creative process as a means of advancing international understanding.”
For the exhibition I developed Visual Instrument – an installation using the Kinect for motion tracking and accompanied with an Android application running on a tablet in the gallery. Both applications allowed the user to knock around virtual balls that emit a note when struck, magically creating a melody through random interactions. For this project, I collaborated with UCD music Professor Paul Musso who supplied the audio samples and explained how melodies could be achieved through specific note combinations while I did the programming and visual elements.
The catalog described the exhibition as:
“Sponsored by La Napoule Art Foundation, Do You See What I See? is an exhibition and community outreach program that offers children and their families a dynamic and immersive arts experience through exposure, education, and experiential art-making.
The exhibition celebrates artwork by renowned local and national artists that is engaging, interactive, and inspiring for children. Featured work meets the standards of fine art and explores the many perspectives that inform our experience of art, asking children and adults alike “Do You See What I See?”