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4Job:01212 Title: Basics typography (AVA)
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Still Standing – OBX Labs
OBX Labs is a research studio based at Concordia
University in Montreal, Canada. Jason Lewis founded
OBX Labs to explore new ways of integrating language
with digital environments. With the help of computational
artist Bruno Nadeau, Lewis produced this installation,
which shows individual letters moving horizontally across
the bottom of a projection screen. The random motion of
letters can be disturbed by viewer interaction, a word we
might want to replace here with the term ‘inter-inaction’.
As soon as a viewer stands in front of the screen the letters
start mirroring the shape of the viewer’s silhouette. But
they do so only as long as the viewer remains still. Once
the viewer moves, the text falls apart and the letters drop
back to the bottom of the screen. In contrast to commonly
known interactive media, this installation induces people to
not act or interact. This behaviour of information contradicts
the viewer’s general experience of digital media. Instead of
urging people to acquire information as quickly as possible,
Still Standing forces the user to remain passive (not in the
perceptual sense, of course). Still Standing can therefore be
considered as a reactionary, but most appropriate, response
to an increasing information density and to what Lewis and
Nadeau refer to as our ‘high-speed culture’.Job:01212 Title: Basics typography (AVA)
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