Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Golan Levin's, et al, Double-Taker Snout interested me in that the piece is perched on a low rooftop above a museum entrance and is interactive with the incoming attendants without any sound. The piece resembles an elephant's snout with an eyeball in the center overlooking attendees. The website, http://www.flong.com/projects/snout/, has some videos showing the interactivity between an adult and some school kids going to the museum. I believe the installation is hung at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts  and the installation brings  a funny but curious note to the building entrance. The installation moves as you come upon the entrance of the Center and it moves in a comical and serpentine manner much like if you were to encounter a tamed and friendly elephant. The addition of the eyeball to the snout is what makes the installation so playful and not threatening in any way.

 Moving Mario by Keith Lam is an reenactment of the video game on gallery wall suggesting that Mario's world is perhaps a bit more static than the actual computer game. As Mario glies along the computer or television screen, he seems to come to life allowing the user the ability to control a new world of possibility in a game by constantly moving forward. You can not win the game unless you keep encountering obstacles. The installation allows the user to move forward or back and does have some of the functionality of the computer game but Mario's world is limited by the length of the inst6allation and the movement of Mario as seen on this URL: http://www.the-demos.com/movingmario/moving-mario. The movement in the installation is not as fluid as in the game and this makes one pay attention to all the gimmicks and tricks of the reality behind the game.