R O S A
At a recent REcreative briefing myself and Faith attended at the Hepworth Gallery, Richard from Invisible Flock gave a talk. The Invisible Flock are an interactive art collective, making live moments, things and games. The main characteristic of their work lies in its participatory nature. Richard talked of interactive art by giving us a walk-through summary of all the Invisible Flock’s projects to date (http://www.invisibleflock.co.uk/). What I found exciting about their collective, was the importance and necessity of the viewers role as the final piece of the work. Each project in different ways addressed boundaries of what an audeince can or should do (in comparison to formal gallery etiquette), by extending an inivtation for the viewers involvment.
'Bring the Happy', was a project in which the Invisible Flock took over an empty shop in The Light shopping centre (Leeds), creating a 'landscape of happiness'. A large map of the town centre was laid out on the floor as one part of the installation, but the completion and development of the work required members of the public to mark out on the map where a happy memory had taken place, rating it out of 10. Each memory was marked by a glass rod, the height of the rod determined by the happiness rating. Three days into the project, Invisible Flock were asked to leave the shopping centre, moving the project to the Leeds City Market. Richard talked of the advantage of this move in how it opened the project up to a larger more varied cross-section of the public, making the map a more truthful reflection of its people.
Whilst Bring the Happy is a project about happiness - 'the what, the where, the how much', Richard also stated how the installation inevitably became quite sinister. Not only as portrait of happiness, but also 'sometimes tragic, sometimes ridiculous and occasionally mundane' experiences.
Hosting over 1000 memories, the Installation is now continuing to exist as a performance piece in collaboration with Hope and Social (http://www.hopeandsocial.com/). The performance part of the project has been used as an opportunity to continue this dialogue between artwork and viewer, playing back the contribution they have made from a different art-driven perspective. The performance will now tour round England during 2013/14 stopping at 5 locations, and mapping each of their happiness landscapes. So, bring the happy everybody!
