ART GAME: STEAMBAO COLLECTIVE'S CLOUDBOX (2022)
A sound-focused interactive installation experimenting with differences in viewer interpretation and experience, Cloudbox is the latest project by Steambao Collective, featuring Kyrin Chen (Sound/Concept), Vi Trinh (Visual/Concept), and Ning Sun (Programming). As Chen explains:
The players navigate through different sound zones with arrow keys, and though they play the same game and see the same scenery the experience itself is entirely contingent on the viewer's interpretation, exposing the ability of sound to create nuance and interactivity. The piece puts audiences in between disconcerting dichotomies - the duality of present serenity and past violence; the disorientation from both being in and out of control; the discombobulation between sight and sound; the philosophical demarcation between video games and art. While breaking the traditional hierarchy in sensory experiences, the work continues the poignant social commentary of Susan Sontag - that art serves both as a source of catharsis or spiritual enlightenment, and as a mouthpiece of war propaganda or military recruitment.
Cloudbox can be downloaded here.This interactive installation reminds me of Chen's previous work, So What Happened the Other Day (2020), a short interactive virtual spatial experience using sound to explore the permeability of acoustic environments, and its relationship with the sonic presence of the moving body.Kyrin Chen lives and works in London.
Informed by their interdisciplinary theoretical framework, Chen’s practice seeks to explore the spatial ‘dialogue’ between body and site through attentive auditory and haptic perception in various media, including interactive games, printmaking, fiction, physical workshops/performances, multi-media installation and beyond. Chen’s works interrogates the tension between supposed dichotomies, exploring the spaces between belonging and dislocation, intimacy and alienation.
LINK: Cloudbox (all images and videos courtesy of the Artist)LINK
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Kyrin Chen