Since moving to Edinburgh last month I have been enjoying some arty delights. First I went to an exhibition to view some art by (among others) my very talented pal, Emily Moore. The Exhibition was called ‘Intersection’ and explored the point at which the visual arts and architecture meet. After the art we were treated to some lovely sound and vision with a live musical performance, by HK2.
The gallery space was particularly interesting, in a wee steel shed down at the docks of Leith, the ground floor is a shared studio space, with a mezzanine area as a gallery space. The wee shed has a really interesting history, it used to house important plans during World War 2 and was built to sustain attack from German Bombers! It is also the only building that survived the re-development of the docks and has been repurposed as a creative hub. There were rumours at the event of plans to knock it down to make way for a brewery, which would be really sad. Let’s hope this little piece of history overcomes another hurdle to survive the test of time.
Last week at the Festival Theatre I examined some new tech at Whist – an immersive arty VR installation! Exploring the notion of unconsciousness and dreams, Whist took us on a journey through 360 videos which merged contemporary dance, conceptual art and physical theatre. There was a series of abstract geometric sculptures on the landing and we were all supplied with our own VR headsets. The sculptures acted as triggers for the 360 videos, encouraging us to interact with the art. The tech was really intuitive and where you looked in the 360 video determined which ‘path’ you would take through the experience (there were 76 possible paths)! The videos themselves were pretty creepy and unnerving – not surprising as they were inspired by Sigmund Freud’s real case studies! At the end we were given a code that referenced which path we had taken, allowing us to log on to their website to read a personality analysis based on our choices. It was a very unique but strange experience and it will be really interesting to see where this technology goes next!