When Naked Communications told The Stable that it is the only creative agency commissioned by Federation Square Melbourne to exhibit at the fourth annual Pause Fest, we wanted to know more about that.
THIS IS NAKED’S ENTRY:
NAKED: The installation encourages strangers to connect with one another to illuminate the message, ‘we are all connected’. The message is an LED framed inside a perspex box that will sit in Federation Square.
Coming out from the font of the box are 2 wires and these run to two handles that are set about 3M apart and 2M from the box.
The installation works by asking participants to join hands in order to complete a low voltage circuit between two conductive handles. These are set far enough apart that to activate the piece alone is impossible. When hands are joined, the LED lights up in bright crimson and green
“Building on the festival theme, Connected, the artwork seeks to actively engage the viewer by asking them to connect physically with other people, where together they can make something happen. The idea of physical interaction and connection was interesting because it’s something we find ourselves doing less and less these days thanks to digital devices and virtual communities. [Andrew Reeves. communications director, Naked Melbourne
WHERE THE IDEA CAME FROM:
NAKED: It all started when we bought a makey makey board and started playing music with bananas and anything else conductive – including Naked staff. The idea for the piece is actually really simple, an interpretation on the festival theme: connected. The concept seeks to comment on the transient and ephemeral nature of our connections thanks to digital and virtual communications, by challenging people to work together to connect and make something happen as a result.
WHO WORKED ON IT:
NAKED: The entire process has been a team effort. Every member of staff has contributed something – from providing input in the initial scoping to design, connecting, and more recently construction, engineering and logistics. That’s one of the things about Naked, that everyone is really passionate and supportive of projects that we take on.
WHY NAKED SUBMITTED IT:
Being a creative and strategic company, we are not often caught short for ideas – but making things like physical objects ourselves is a different thing all together. It’s probably an understatement therefore to say the experience has been challenging but it has also been galvanising and ultimately very satisfying. This Naked opportunity is also a lovely way to bring our positioning and alignment to the ‘speed of culture’ to life in an interesting way and in association with cultural leaders like Pause Fest and Fed Square.
Naked, who won the Fed Square and Pause Fest 2014 Connected digital expression of interest and Carspace who came second, each get a cash prize of $5,000.
Carspace’s entry was Project: Roam – a series of mobile projection installations, each using three, four or five projection canvases & operators to produce large scale digital artworks, in and around Fed Square.
