Photo: Bert Bongers
Transcript
This work, Interlace, is an interactive work where the visitor can influence how the images appear; and tiny little cells are woven into the fabric to enable you to do this. It's a very sophisticated work. A sense of pattern and place dominates this beautiful interactive work from two very talented artists, from quite different disciplines, but both fascinated by design in pattern making. Their work layers voided fabric lace against moving images of Australian landscapes, beaches, rocks and water. Cecilia Heffer has worked as an international textile designer for many years. Now as Director of Programs, Fashion and Textiles at the University Technology Sydney, and a senior lecturer, Cecilia has encouraged her students to look closely at textile constructions found in traditional lace and to use these principles creatively. She combines traditional hand processes with new digital print technology, laser cutting and CAD systems. Bert Bongers has set up new media labs in Amsterdam, Barcelona and Maastricht and here in Sydney: the Interactivation studio at UTS. He designs electronic musical instruments and interactive architectural spaces. Bert's video projections reflect a powerful sense of place. They evolve from images from extensive travels in Australia – images of rock patterns, seaweed flows, underwater creatures, beaches and eroded volcanic shapes.
InterLace
Cecilia Heffer and Bert Bongers
Dimensions
600 x 1900 mm (largest), 600 x 1680 mm (smallest)
Materials
Lace panels (3) with video projection: silkscreened, machine stitched silk organza on soluble substrates embedded with sensors, interacting with a digital interface projection of the Australian landscape.
Artist statement
‘InterLace is an interactive video lace installation. The work sits between the definitions of a built environment and a multimedia environment. It is a response to the space and landscape of the travels by the artists separately and together within Australia.
Designed as a visual, spatial and tangible sensory experience, the work transforms lace in a three-dimensional augmented environment. Traditional expressions of lace pattern are redefined through the use of innovative materials, process and video technologies.
Sensors stitched into fragile delicate lace surfaces detect changes in light, and the proximity and movement of the audience. The work becomes an augmented fabric, with a multiplicity of layers of image and meaning; exploring the spatial mysterious interplay between real and virtual worlds. Its layers explore light and shadow between material and ephemeral perceptions of negative and positive space.’