This week I spent a bit of time watching kids, and I found it very fulfilling. Maybe I should explain…
A recent project of ours has been an interactive installation at Roast restaurant in Borough Market. If you don’t know it, Roast sits in the rafters of the Floral hall above the market, behind glass walls. From your table you have views out over the myriad of stalls selling amazing produce of all varieties… it’s really nice. It’s ideally located to get the pick of the market in the morning, and whatever you order, from an ‘Ayrshire smoked streaky bacon’ butty for breakfast, to ‘Roast leg of Elwy Valley lamb’ in the evening, it’s pretty damn good.
We designed a set of stills and animations that reflect the seasonal nature of the market, by depicting the seasonal British countryside, in landscapes and in produce. The scenes show all the seasons of the year over the course of an hour, in a silhouette style inspired by old woodcuts. These images are split up into 9 different picture frames, which at first glance seem to be prints. However, out the corner of your eye you might notice movement, and upon second inspection you can see that there are subtle animations; a farmer watching his fields, a fish swimming in the pond, some butterflies flitting to a flower.A small project really, but a fun one. To add a pinch of playfulness we built in a simple proximity sensor that triggers a gust of wind in the scene. It looks different in every season; blowing dandelions about in the summer, leaves off the trees in autumn.
After working on a project in the studio for a while, sometimes you stop seeing the magic. It just becomes a bit old. I feel similar when editing video. You watch the same minute of film so many times you just hate it in the end.
One day this week, however, I was really reminded of why I love what I do. I was down in the restaurant to make sure all was working correctly, Elly and I sat with our coffees, watching people walk past the thing. It just seemed to completely er… work. The double takes were great. “Did that just move?… wait… it did it again!!?” We saw a couple of children arrive with their parents. They stood in amazement just pointing and watching and pretty much had to get dragged away to the table by their parents. Kids are just great. They figure things out in seconds. If it’s no good, they’re off.
It was exactly as we had planned. And better. It really works, this “Simple Human Interaction”. How satisfying.
It’s looks really great, can’t wait to see it in situ and watch people’s reactions.