Earth Hour is an annual event organised by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF)  to raise awareness about climate change. I was asked to create some outdoor projections for the event, so I created this interactive artwork which allows people to participate with their bodys. A camera outlines their silhouette on the building and and Earth drops from above which they must catch. If you can stop the earth from falling for ten seconds you are congratulated, if dropped you lose.

I created this artwork by typing code in c++ using the brilliant openframeworks toolkit. None of this would be possible without the openframeworks and its community.

Recently I met Stefan who’s the director of street art showcase a not for profit event promoting street art. The ideals behind the event align quite well with my own digital graffiti practice. So I agreed to help out with projections for the event. We used my big projector to project images of street art whilst I engaged the public in live digital graffiti using my smaller projector.

A quick chat to most people in Toronto reveals that the city council (especially Mayor Rob Ford) declared war on graffiti. Penalising business owners who actually APPROVE of the graffiti art on their buildings with fines. These kind of crazy actions by a city council is not entirely new, but they are based on a lack of respect for artists, property owners and the community at large. Street Art Showcase is in its first year as an event in Toronto and hopes to educate the more sheltered in Toronto’s community.

Very similar to ololo’s ReFace project in Australia which I was also involved in. Street Art Showcase used Projected Photographs of Graffiti and Street Art to get the public to look past the legalities of street art and see the art within it.

above: cruz1 thows up a digital character at street art showcase

Big thanks Psyrina Ik, May Spark, Jax A Muse for their VJ sets. Those who got there first would have also seen my AV set.

above: the mark ofGRLPERTH stating torontos new digital graffiti status
 

When the Laneway Festival asked us to make something new for there festival we proposed a computer game for the Street. This in an interactive game almost anyone can play, by hacking an xbox Kinect with some custom software you can use your whole body to control the game.

the location is a great little spot in Perths Cultural Centre where a pool has been replaced by its orginal native plants and reeds… what better place to play a game as the digital representation of Perths infamous Black Swans. The aim of the game… be the best dam swan you can (oh and try not to hit the rocks.. you will die)

design and dev by Steve Berrick, Al McEwen, Dan Moller and Jerrem Lynch

above: random pineapple by Jerrem
below: sheltering from the rain in one of Toronto’s many tram stop shelters


above: drawing by Jaxamuse
below: drawing by Cruz1