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Playful creatures take to the streets
A little bit of Alice in Wonderland has arrived next to the Watershed in the form of a colourful and playful animated rabbit.
“Aaaaah!” squealed my 10-month-old daughter Lois in delight as she saw the green creature scampering about. “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
We left the rabbit alone and it casually sauntered up right beside us to say hello, standing up on its hind legs and wiggling its ears and tail.
If Lois had longer ears and a bushy tail, they too would have been wiggling. Constrained as she was in a pouch on my chest, she was content to look and try to reach out to touch the illuminated projection.
It was left to me to scratch and tickle the rabbit. I may have been waving my fingers in thin air but the interaction felt real.
The winner of the 2015 international Playable City Award is Urbanimals, created by the Laboratory for Architectural Experiments, LAX, based in Poland – chosen by a panel of judges from a shortlist of seven projects.
This little rabbit is just one of “a playful pack of wild beasts” who have now taken to the streets of Bristol as part of this year’s Playable City project, which in previous years has seen talking lampposts and dancing shadows.
Leap with a dolphin or skip with a cheeky kangaroo triggered by people passing or stopping, created using projectors and sensors.
Urbanimals has been created by LAX, an experimental design team based in Poland, who describe themselves as practicing “at the edge of architecture”, testing the boundaries of urban planning, design, psychology and computation.
They worked with Watershed producers across the summer in Bristol to explore their ideas, developing the technology to now bring their vision to life.
You can find the Urbanimals from dusk until midnight until November 19. For more information, visit www.urbanimals.eu.