What do art, tech, and nature have in common?
When added together, these ingredients can create beauty, connection, and a whole lotta emotion. I was most impressed — and overwhelmed — by such recipes displayed at the recent SXSW Interactive Conference in Austin, Texas, last month. This event has become a hallmark event for me each spring: an epic overload of inspiration that blasts me out of my introverted winter doldrums and into an overflowing abundance of opportunity and possibility at warp speed.
Besides the excitement of the tech and start-up scene at SXSW, the theme that rose to the surface for my 2019 experience at SX is immersive design.
When I say immersive, I mean more than blocking off my calendar and email. Immersive is the theme because of the deeply emotional and transportive activation experiences that popped up throughout the festival.
These sometimes short but always momentous immersions had the greatest impact on me, my experience, and what I wish to highlight.
Last year I was first introduced to the amazing power of immersion at SX through the West World experience, and this year was no different. HBO outdid itself in 2019 with a Game of Thrones activation that participants had to literally give their own blood to enter. Because SX.
Both of these HBO worlds virtually transported us from Texas and received loads of press, so I will stop talking about then now. Instead, I’d like to highlight 3 other lesser known immersions that provide great insight into the future of work, creativity, and community.
How might we leverage art and technology to build connections?
1. meConvention’s Future of Leadership
Step 1: step into the black room.
Step 2: choose a color of string that corresponds to the following: empathy, divergent thinking, diversity, etc…
Step 3: Route it through a set of questions and rank the importance to your keyword.
This immersive and interactive data visualization activation created a real-time display of SX participants’ values and opinions related to leadership.
What is most important for the Future of Leadership? As you can see from the photos to the left, trends were emerging across categories and questions. Overall, the meConvention activation supported its vision statement and aligns to my values as a design thinker: “To succeed in an unpredictable future, we need to keep learning, adapting and refining”
I enjoyed adding my (empathy) string to the group visualization, and that the questions spanned technology, science, and society. Like nature, this activation was continuously evolving and changing every time a human walked through it. It was a subtle reminder of the impact of our presence, and the opportunity that intentional input can create on others who analyze our actions even after we’re gone.
2. Algorave at the UK House
Loud, live, and electronic are the three words that best summarize the Algorave immersion. If you’ve never heard of the term “algorave” - no sweat. An algorave is a live coding party where the DJs are computer programmers who co-create the party’s soundtrack live, on stage, in front of a crowd.
Presented at the British Music Embassy, this was my first experience at an algorave. Sipping on a tequila soda, the sound of electronic beats pounding around me, my favorite part became watching projections of each coder’s computer screen on walls around the space.
While colored lasers reflecting off of smoke machine exhaust lit up the dance floor, even a non-coder like me had fun watching how adapting and adding to the code produced different beats, sounds, and melodies. Is algorave the future of dance music? I did find it somewhat odd how immersed each coder was with their keyboard, however, barely looking up or grooving to the music. Absorbed with their keystrokes, the three coders on stage acted in such contrast to how musicians, DJs, and composers behave during performances.
Overall it was an incredibly fun integration between technology, digital production, and the creative arts. It made me begin to think about coding — and engineering in general — as more of an art form than pure science. Algorave is a great example of STEAM!
3. Blooming
This 3-minute art installation was the absolute highlight of my entire week at SXSW. Even better than having a drink on a rooftop with Jon Hamm. Seriously.
Commissioned by Nokia Bell Labs and New Museum NEW INC, this incredible experience — Blooming — was created and directed by artist Lisa Park.
Upon walking into a darkened hotel meeting room entryway, we were asked to remove our shoes. To me, this was the best way to begin the experience, as my feet were swollen and sore from walking around in the early summer heat of Texas. After tucking our shoes away, we were ushered through a black curtain into the room where faux grass met our bare feet and our eyes became fixed on the outline of a tree displayed on a huge projection screen that took up almost a full wall.
Our exhibition guide asked me and the two others who had walked in with me to each stand on one of 4, circular, biometric pads that were lined up on the floor facing the screen. She then began to give us directions.
We held hands, put our hands on each other's shoulders, and even hugged. Each time we touched, the tree began to bloom. The more skin-to-skin contact, the brighter the blooming colors and louder the music in the room. As soon as we broke our grasp, the tree began to wither and appear to die.
The pads (which actually looked like cut tree trunks) we were standing on were able to sense our heart rates and the electricity in our bodies. When we touched, we connected sensors in the pads and the visualization reacted accordingly. Though simple — or perhaps because of how simple this was — it was a profound experience. Within seconds I found myself in tears of joy and could feel the love and connection between myself and the two other women who I was experiencing this with.
The purpose of this installation was to highlight the power of touch and connection. I wish every person on earth could experience Blooming.
I immediately went into brainstorm mode: what would it be like if a dog was on one of the pads? What if it was a plant? What if it was an enemy? Lover? The possibilities of non-verbal connection felt limitless!
It can be difficult to describe in words how art makes us feel. While writing this, I’ve struggled to convey just how beautiful and powerful this installation was. Words just aren’t enough, which is actually literally why art exists! Probably the best I can say is to urge you to seek out Lisa Park’s touring exhibitions and attend any that may be within your reach. I promise you will not be disappointed.
After I left the Blooming installation, I went and sat under a tree for a long time. This is not uncommon for me, but it felt like a completely new experience. This is what art and technology and nature can do: they are transformational. They are built to help us connect with our selves, with each other, and to inspire possibility.
*Huge gratitude to my dear friend, Jessica, who urged me to attend the Blooming exhibition, and who sat under that tree with me after.*
About the author: Cate feels most herself when surrounded by trees. She grew up in the woods of Maine riding horses and playing in the shade of hemlocks, birch, and maples. Cate is a global design ambassador and innovation champion on a mission to connect leaders to natural solutions by immersion in wilderness and inspiration from nature’s beauty.
Learn more at www.catebjohnson.com
Want to collaborate? Email me: cate@catebjohnson.com
