Saturday, June 6, 2009

incomplete cube

incomplete cube
incomplete cube
the incomplete cube consists of 9 small cubes which can be used as seats. given that enough avatars are present, the 9 cubes change position to occupy the 8 corners of a cube and its center. the avatars are then used to form the edges of the cube. since a maximum of 8 edges can be formed, the cube created by the avatars' bodies will ever be complete. the first version, used during my talk for the finissage of systems of reference, used a triggered command, the second version shown at BiW (but unnoticed by the critics) was self-triggered once more than 5 of the 9 seats were occupied.
the incomplete cube was now nominated at the BiW wiki and here's the text written for this nomination (see also jay van buren's comment at my flickr stream):

Sometimes there is work at Brooklyn Is Watching, which is continuously overlooked. And sometimes there is work which appears to be a litmus test of curiosity. Selavy placed nine small white cubes in front of the stage, and you could sit on each one of them without anything happening. Only if five avatars would sit at the same time, the nine white cubes would reveal their mystery: they suddenly would start to move, animate the avatars, transforming them avatars into a 'living' sculptures, forming the edges of a larger cube with their bodies. Eight cubes for the eight corners, one for the center, but eight avatars being never enough to make the cube complete, to provide all its twelve edges. A social sculpture? Or a complete failure, conceptually embedded in the work? Even though there was a notecard handed out to every avatar sitting on one of the cubes, even though the nine cubes were at BiW for three weeks, the "Incomplete Cube" was only activated once when Selavy spontaneously called a group of friends to help.

-- Nusch Ray

1 comment:

  1. see also blog post by soror nishi: http://sorornishi.blogspot.com/2010/07/interactive-art.html

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