June 22, 2010
Utopia Skyways
In a slight departure from the norm, we were proud to be part of the latest immersive Secret Cinema event last week. The lovely SC folk went to town – an extravagantly neon Chinatown in a retrofuturistic LA – for a screening of Blade Runner.
If you were lucky enough to be travelling the distance on UtopiaSkyways you would have seen us in the Eyeworks lab installation. We questioned what it meant to be human, alongside the spitting image of scientist Chew (a genetic engineer of replicant eyes in the film).
We ran a specially designed change blindness test invesigating whether you were a human or a replicant, a survey on peoples attitudes towards robots, and investigations with an ‘empathetic’ Elvis robot, eyeballs and origami…We loved it. Featured scientists Laurel Riek (University of Cambridge), Peter McOwan, Milan Verma and the rest of the crew from Queen Mary did too.
We also invited Tim Maynard of the Living Classroom to wow the crowds as a serpent seller with a variety of insects and reptiles to handle. Our favourite? Gretchen the baby chameleon, daughter of Jeff.
Finally we ran a classification activity, inviting opinion on what constituted life and non-life on a sliding scale including the artwork ‘Dressing the Meat of Tomorrow’ by speculative designer James King, a Malaysian leaf insect, and stick insect amongst others.
A week of experimentation has led to a slight obsession with eyes, origami, and the complexity of human nature.
Check out the rest of the photos here and here.
By Jen
June 21, 2010
In Pictures: Blade Runner
Last week saw us spend six straight days immersed in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner with the Secret Cinema. Check out our flickr site for complete pics of our installations in the Eyeworks
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