Intencities
The Intencities Installation [Helsinki, Finland, 2000] was designed by Kivi Sotamaa as part of the Helsinki Cultural Capital 2000 events. The site for the intervention was Makasiini, a 19th century u-shaped and single storey block of ex-railway depots, facing the Finnish House of Parliament and Kiasma - Stephen Holl’s Museum of Modern Art. The intervention incorporated elements of art, architecture, dance, music, media, and graphic design. The multi-disciplinary design team devised a loosely coupled choreographic layout in order to engender dynamic interactions between scheduled performances, formal, sonic, tactile, and material elements and emergent flows of movement and ambient effects across the site.
The architectural component of the intervention comprised five geometrically differentiated structures made of steel tube, timber planks and plastic film. The structures made loose provision for programmatic arrangements, such as stages, seating or circulation areas, viewing platforms and bridges, while avoiding functional representation. These structures revealed their occupational potential only through the staging of events and artistic performances, as their usefulness emerged from spontaneous use by the performers, visitors and audiences.
The construction and surfacing of the structures was undertaken over time, changing their appearance and presence in the site. Motion triggered light and sound systems were integrated into the structures and enabled a feedback relation between visitors and changing ambient effects of the intervention. In providing projection surface the structures configured an audio-visually animated landscape as well as both stage and backdrop for the different events and performances. The introduction of new media technology served to translate physical movement across the site into digital animations, which were projected onto the surfaces of the structures. The visitors could make use of both their actual movement and their mobile phones to manipulate the projected graphics and therefore the audio-visual appearance of the intervention.
The dance performances evolved randomly in relation to visitor movement and surface articulation. The initial spatial distance and distinction between dancers and audience decreased gradually as the dancers moved into, through and with the audience, making use of the narrow space of a bridge structure. Through this open choreography the audience became an active and integral part of the performance, resulting in always changing relations and pattern during each dance event.
Overall, the differentiated geometry of the material construct, the changing intensities of ambient effects, as well as the individual and collective movement of visitors and performers continually converged and diverged, provisionally assembling and dispersing the elements of the intervention into ever-changing configurations. The built and ambient environment, events and deployed technology co-jointly produced a field of conditions and effects animated by collective inhabitation - vigorous and performative.
The architectural component of the intervention comprised five geometrically differentiated structures made of steel tube, timber planks and plastic film. The structures made loose provision for programmatic arrangements, such as stages, seating or circulation areas, viewing platforms and bridges, while avoiding functional representation. These structures revealed their occupational potential only through the staging of events and artistic performances, as their usefulness emerged from spontaneous use by the performers, visitors and audiences.
The construction and surfacing of the structures was undertaken over time, changing their appearance and presence in the site. Motion triggered light and sound systems were integrated into the structures and enabled a feedback relation between visitors and changing ambient effects of the intervention. In providing projection surface the structures configured an audio-visually animated landscape as well as both stage and backdrop for the different events and performances. The introduction of new media technology served to translate physical movement across the site into digital animations, which were projected onto the surfaces of the structures. The visitors could make use of both their actual movement and their mobile phones to manipulate the projected graphics and therefore the audio-visual appearance of the intervention.
The dance performances evolved randomly in relation to visitor movement and surface articulation. The initial spatial distance and distinction between dancers and audience decreased gradually as the dancers moved into, through and with the audience, making use of the narrow space of a bridge structure. Through this open choreography the audience became an active and integral part of the performance, resulting in always changing relations and pattern during each dance event.
Overall, the differentiated geometry of the material construct, the changing intensities of ambient effects, as well as the individual and collective movement of visitors and performers continually converged and diverged, provisionally assembling and dispersing the elements of the intervention into ever-changing configurations. The built and ambient environment, events and deployed technology co-jointly produced a field of conditions and effects animated by collective inhabitation - vigorous and performative.