Lindsay MacDonald, an artist and interdisciplinary researcher from Calgary, presented the interactive installation Conditional Balance at the Festival The HTMlles 10. The work, a reflection upon the risky nature of collaborations, consisted on two porcelan spheres that would move, sometimes fall and even break when the Microsoft Kinects embedded in the supporting stands would detect the body movements of the viewers present. Lindsay tells us a bit more about the project, the risks it entailed and about her participation on the Festival.
Alice Carvalho
Alice: How did you hear of the festival and what encouraged you to submit the project Conditional Balance?
Lindsay: I first heard about the festival a few years ago through some of my contacts in the media art community here in Montreal. I was considering applying for the last iteration of the festival in 2010, but the timing wasn't quite right for me because I was busy trying to finish my MFA. WIth regards to Conditional Balance, this piece is new work that Sheelagh and I haven't had a chance to show yet. The theme of risk resonated with both of us, but since neither one of us are that familiar with risk in a business context, we decided to make a piece that dealt more with risk in the context of collaborations in academia and in personal relationships.
When I saw the call for applications for this year's festival, I had recently begun my PhD and was thinking a lot about the problems that can come up with collaborative projects between artists and computer scientists. Specifically, I was thinking about issues like the order of names on resulting art pieces in exhibitions and how that is different from the names that appear on papers about the project that are submitted to journals and conferences. In the case of names, I've had people in the art world question me about why my collaborators' names appear on "my" work, not realizing that to me, the computer scientists and engineers I work with are co-artists and their names belong on the work. I've even had people tell me that I'm risking my career as an artist by doing this, which I don't really understand, because a cornerstone of my art practice is collaborating with people in other disciplines. I know Sheelagh had some similar experiences during her PhD. In this way, the two stands could be said to represent me and Sheelagh, and the porcelain balls could be said to represent the perception of our careers. I've also been hearing, since beginning my PhD, that I am letting my career get in the way of my personal life. For example, people I respect and also people I barely know have been asking me when I plan to get married and have babies, and telling me I should be careful about not letting my life pass me by while I concentrate on building my career. Sheelagh is in a different phase of her career than I am, and she tells me that these kinds of comments are something that young women in academia may have to deal with on a regular basis.
When we were thinking about what we wanted our viewers to do in order to trigger the movement of the porcelain balls, we were thinking about how, in a gallery setting, the movement of people around delicate objects can be dangerous, as even vibrations through the floor can cause them to fall and break. In this way, if two people are close to each other and interacting in a certain way, even if they are not touching the work itself, it's possible to make the work break as a result of their actions. This act of destruction becomes both a consequence and a snapshot of this encounter, simultaneously. That's why we decided to have our Kinect sensors embedded in the piece watching specifically for two people to come close together at a proximity that would, in our culture at least, be unacceptable for people who are strangers to each other.
A: Did you face many risks in this collaboration, from the start until the moment it was presented at the festival?
L: There were certainly a few things I was worried about! Collaborations are always risky, both for the relationship that exists between the collaborating partners and for the outcome of the work, should things turn sour. I have certainly witnessed collaborations going badly in the past for others and I'm pretty thankful that that did not happen to us. That being said, Sheelagh and I have been working together since 2008 and we have known each other since 2006, so we know what to expect from each other and we can usually deal with issues before they become major problems.
For both Sheelagh and I, there were a few steps in the process of making the work that were pretty risky. We tried to move through each phase of the project together instead of dividing up the work. Sheelagh has lots of experience with ceramics, but I don't - it's been about 15 years since I had set foot in a clay studio! so I was nervous about being able to make the porcelain spheres and not have them explode in the kiln. We also had the idea of glazing only the interiors of the spheres, so that when they broke open, they would be red on the inside. As we were pouring the glaze in, Sheelagh told me that there was a pretty good chance that the glaze would not turn out to be red because of the way it reduces in the kiln, and we might end up with a totally unexpected colour (which actually did happen, and I liked the result!). For me, the other big risk was taking on writing the software that drives the piece. I am still learning to write code and I find that I get to a certain point in my work and then I get stuck. Fortunately, I had a lot help with the coding from David Ledo, who is a masters student in the computer science lab I work in. We couldn't have done this without him!
From a logistical point of view, I was also concerned about the risk of transporting 15 porcelain balls in a suitcase on the plane here, but that's an obvious risk, I think!
As we grew closer to the time that we had to pack up the piece to bring it to HTMlles, Sheelagh was concerned that the piece was risky in another way - she was very worried about the possibility of one of the balls falling on someone and hurting them!
A: How was the experience of presenting your work at the opening party for The HTMlles 10 festival? How did the public react to the moving porcelain spheres? Did you get any interesting comments/ reactions you would like to share?
L: I always enjoy opening receptions for interactive art work because it feels like the work is alive, like a character that is socializing and networking with the people there. I was delighted to see so many people engaged with the work and trying to figure out how to activate it. When a few of them figured out that the work was responding to two people entering each other's intimate space, lots of people came together in front of the work to try and activate it by dancing, hugging, fighting... you name it. When the spheres actually fall and break, people cheer. I think perhaps the breaking is some kind of cathartic experience for viewers here. This is a pretty big contrast to what I experienced at home when I was testing the work in my lab, where I found that people were pretty scared when the spheres started moving and panicked when they fell off! I'm not sure if this difference is because the work is in the gallery vs. a computer science lab, and I actually think that these mixed reactions from viewers is the most interesting part of showing the work here.
A: What was the biggest challenge and the biggest reward of this experience?
L: Good question! I'm not really sure what I could say was The Biggest Challenge. One challenge that comes to mind in this piece, for me, was dealing with the unknown and letting go of trying to control things I couldn't control. My art practice is pretty heavy on design, and I found that the design I made in the beginning needed to be changed constantly as I understood more about the weight of the porcelain and the behaviour of the hardware. Sheelagh and I often debated alternate design solutions and it took time to come up with something that we were both happy with.
As far as rewards go, I think having the opportunity to come to Montreal, show our work alongside some amazing other artists, and reconnect with the media art community here was pretty rewarding. Sheelagh and I are both honoured to have been part of HTMlles this year.
