Shape Perception: An Interactive Media Literacy Exhibit

1997 - 1998 New York, San Francisco. I have always been fascinated by media, how few people create it and yet, how everyone is impacted by it.

Shape Perception is one of seven interactive art installations about creativity, human beings and media (our creative poop.) I specifically wanted to design interactive installations that would explore this theme in the same tactical way that the Exploratorium explains scientific theories and laws. Marshall McLuhan is awesome but you can't really engage the masses with his books on media theory. It ain't Harry Potter. So, here's what I did:

In a totally random environment (public parks), people discover six identical silver blocks on tables, arranged in a circle. Next to each is a mallet and a chisel. Upon closer inspection, they see that the blocks are not exactly the same. They range in density: soft clay, wax, styrofoam, wood, cement and steel.

And someone begins. Someone has to pick at it. They can't resist. It's human nature. They pick their medium of choice and they create a mark. At first a very small, shy mark. They leave. Others come, see the mark, are inspired to create their own, do so, and then they leave. More come and do the same. That first mark shapes the perception of the next person and the next. The medium is no longer a block but something that develops into communication. Techniques appear and people are more sophisticated about what they decide to create. And eventually, by the end of the day, someone eventually decides to mix the media, creating a whole new medium.

People talk about "media" all the time. Rarely do they think of it as just the plural of "medium." Our written languages, music, radio, film, tv, the internet all developed like these six blocks and now we mix and match them, creating ridiculously complex forms of communication which in turn creates elitism which then motivates others to create new forms of media that will be more accessible to even more folks. It's cyclical. That's my take on what human beings do.

My interest in media literacy led me to the Just Think Foundation, a wonderful organization that shares the mission to foster understanding about media. I used my second show of Shape Perception in Union Square as a means to share information about their programs as well as promote the Artist Guild of San Francisco.