Jerman Cheung
East Asia Press Office,Hong Kong
On 25 October Shanghai hosted its first Penguin Pool event on rethinking the interactive experience of art and design.
More than 200 guests across industries joined leading artists at the convergence of art and new media to explore how technologies are shaping the way we communicate, share information and experience reality.
The highly interactive journey of reflection and rediscovery was kicked off by Ng Tze-Kwan, Executive Creative Director of yU+co.[lab], who shared his insights on new technological research and innovation in interactive user experience.
The creative spark was further fuelled by Dutch artist and architect Daan Roosegaarde, who brought his latest interactive piece 'Lotus Foil' and gave an in-depth look at new technology, art and human experience.
Jin Ge, Research Designer of IDEO, relayed the exploration by sharing his deep and extensive experience in researching human behaviour, and turning observations into revealing and useful insights.
The intellectual journey was wrapped up by Hui-Hsui Lin, CEO and Co-Founder of Techart Group, with an inspiring overview of interactive art projects.
True to the essence of this evening of inspiration, all guests were invited to play with a handful of interactive art installations on site, becoming part of the artworks and experiencing the aesthetic impact of interactivity first hand.
These installations included Kwan's experimental interactive interface specifically developed for the Penguin Pool, Liu Dao artist collective at island6’s ‘Pay Phone’ where guests used their mobile phones to call the number listed and influenced the characters in the animation; "Shall we Dance Shanghai?" by Techart, in which the audience were engaged and danced with a large projection of Shanghai landmarks; and "The Eye" by Northern Light, in which a large animation of a human eye reacted to the guests following them as they walked by.
The Penguin Pool is a global series of parties presented by Arup to inform, inspire and entertain. Shanghai is the 10th city to host a Penguin Pool event following Sydney, Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore, Milan, San Francisco, London, New York and Melbourne.