Decode

Whilst in London I visited the VnA museum to see the Decode exhibition. I’d seen the exhibition advertised and new a lot of it involved interactive work but I still wasn’t sure what to expect. Unfortunately, on the day I went, there seemed to be a whole primary school visiting so it was sometimes difficult to get near some of the work, but what I did see impressed me. I realised whilst walking round that interactive work really interests me. I’d never considered interactive work as a medium id ever be interested in pursuing, mainly because I wouldn’t really know how to go about technically creating something like it. Most other interactive work I've seen has been on their own and not in an exhibition, because of this, although I liked them, I've tended to forget about them. I thought the work benefit from being all together and I think this aspect made me appreciate it more. One of my favourite exhibitions was Daniel Rozen, Weave Mirror, which was a large screen made up of weaved metal sections. When the viewer stood in front of the screen the weaved sections turned to reveal the viewers reflected image. When you looked behind the screen the workings were visible which was interesting to see as it was extremely complex. I also liked "Body Paint" by Mehmet Akten which was also shown on a large screen. The screen picked up on the viewers movement behind the screen and projected them as paint marks.

I found this exhibition also made me consider the ideas behind some of the work produced and how it could, in many ways influence the work I do. It made me think that some of the ideas could be great used within advertising. For instance, some of the boards represented figures and statistics with different patterns, something like this could easily be applied to an advertising campaign of some sort that would undoubtedly grab peoples attention. I then got to thinking about our Ted Baker project and realised that in the early stages we considered interactive means i.e splashing puddles. So without even realising I have in the past thought of my own interactive work.

Decode was definitely an exhibition I would recommend to anyone. It was aimed at all ages and from the wide range of people there it clearly appealed to all. I feel it opened up my eyes to a new medium and got me a lot more interested in interactive work.