Symbol of stillness - Stuart Lawson

The image above - Symbol of stillness - is a still from a small concept animation of one of the items a participant might have seen emerging from the depths of the table as they spun its surface and traversed its perimeter. I say ‘might have seen’, because it doesn’t really fit in with the existing imagery in that part of the work. With a bit of tweaking and finessing, this abstract image (along with some other concepts not yet posted), may appear in the final act/section of the work - which is ultimately better suited to host this type of visual treatment.

Where we are so far…

There are 5 areas around the table in which interaction can take place. The floor pads that react to movement and the specially engineered spinning table-top have been up and running for the past few months - which has allowed us to test and experiment with the imagery, sound and interaction progressively as we experience the work in a way that a participant might.

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Knowmore - stage 1. Image of table being tested in production meeting

What is Knowmore?

Knowmore is an interactive installation (or immersive kinetic artwork) - it is best described by Keith Armstrong as:

“… a tabletop interactive work where the evolution of the images projected upon its top surface and spatial soundscape depends upon both how participants spin the table and how they move around it. Imagery projected onto a round table, can be interacted with by standing in various areas around the table and spinning its surface at varying speeds or direction.”

The artists involved are:

• Keith Armstrong (Artistic Director)
• Chris Barker (Co-director/3D Designer)
• Darren Pack (3D Engine Programming)
• Stuart Lawson (Visual Design)

The ideas present in Knowmore look at the impact of our actions upon a multitude of ecological systems. The work is a subtle metaphor that can be applied to our individual lives and to humanity as a whole.

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Memosis - Virtual Reality (VR) installation

‘Memeosis’ was an interactive virtual reality (VR) installation completed in 2003, and was inspired by developments in nanotechnology and the promising future it may hold for medicine. The focus of the work was to inform and entertain and was intended to be a goal based exploratory experience. The participant was offered a represented reality in which they are given the impression that they are able to connect to an online server and assume control of a minute probe that has been inserted into a living host. Intertextual information present in the work was intended to contribute to the heightened sense of immersion - blurring the boundary of reality and fiction.

It was intended to move into a second stage of production where it would have used stereoscopics - which would have offered an extra sense of depth ( literally).

The second stage may still happen in future, depending on funding.

-Stu

Image: One of the 5 characters designed and animated for Intimate Transactions

Intimate Transactions - the interactive installation I had the pleasure of working on (back in 2004/2005) - was recently shown at the National Art Museum in China as part of the Media Art China’s Synthetic Times Exhibition.

I was primarily responsible for character design, modeling and animation; however myself and the other key collaborators were all involved early on with various parts of concept development - which is a truly fascinating and thoroughly enjoyable experience with an arts project of this type.

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